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Egyptians were being asked on Saturday to vote on constitutional amendments that would allow President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to stay in power until 2030.

The three-day voting period for the nationwide referendum started at 09:00 on Saturday on proposed changes that would also further enshrine the military’s role in politics.

Parliament, packed with el-Sissi supporters, overwhelmingly approved the amendments on Tuesday.

The proposed changes are seen by critics as another step back toward authoritarianism. The referendum comes eight years after a pro-democracy uprising ended autocrat Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade rule, and nearly six years after el-Sissi led a popular military overthrow of the country’s first freely elected but divisive Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz greets Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Vienna at the start of an official visit. The vote comes as authorities waged an unprecedented crackdown on dissent in recent years, arresting thousands of people – mostly Islamists but also prominent secular activists – and rolling back freedoms won in 2011. – AFP