In a related development, army postponed the planned reconciliation talks scheduled during the day between Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and the largely secular opposition for an unspecified later date.
"We call on citizens to vote 'No' in the referendum on the constitution," the National Salvation Front, alliance of opposition parties, said in a statement.
The Front asked "Egyptians to go to polling stations to refuse the proposed constitution and to vote no."
The Front's statement came shortly after the Egyptian Central Election Commission announced that the vote on the draft constitution would be held on two different dates -- on December 15 and December 22. Earlier, the election was be held only on December 15.
While asking the people to vote in 'No' in the referendum, the largely secular opposition set several conditions, including demanding that the referendum be held over a single day.
According to Aljazeera TV news channel, the opposition also demanded that there be full judicial supervision of the process and that international and local NGOs be allowed to monitor it.
The armed forces, in a statement, said the planned meeting aimed at building national dialogue between political forces, which had been called for by the minister of defence, is postponed for the time being.
The reason behind the postponement of the meeting was the reluctance of many political actors to respond to the invitation, according to the statement published on the official Facebook page of the spokesperson for the armed forces.
The Central Election Commission announced that the vote, initially set only for December 15, will take place both on Saturday and a week later on December 22. Each round will cover a different region, the state media reported.
According to Aljazeera, the two-day voting plan had been adopted because many of the judges needed to oversee the vote were staying away in protest at the decision to hold the referendum, so voting had to be staggered to move the judges around. (More)
