SCOTT SIMON, Host: NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports voter turnout is unusually high in some districts.</s>SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Voters pack the streets around the polling station in the upper-class neighborhood in Zamalek here in Cairo. Accountant Abeid Mossad is one of many here who say they are voting for the first time.</s>ABEID MOSSAD: It's worth it, it's worth it. Once every 30 years to do this, it's worth it. All my generation have never seen this before.</s>SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Fellow first-time voter Mona Mustafa, who's been waiting for more than an hour, says she will stay as long as it takes to cast her ballot.</s>MONA MUSTAFA: You don't feel like it's rigged; you feel like your voice counts and that when you vote your yes or no vote, it will really be counted, hopefully. Inshallah, as they say.</s>SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Some analysts here question why the measures were never officially publicized. Gianluca Parolin is an assistant law professor at American University in Cairo.</s>GIANLUCA PAROLIN: The outcome of the referendum will also depend politically, I think, on the informed decision of the voter. Now, that has been a major problem because the final text of the amendments was never truly released.</s>SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: With Egypt's history of rigged elections, many here wonder whether today's referendum will be free and fair.</s>SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Independent monitors, like Amr Shalanky, are being sent to the polls to prevent fraud. He complains the referendum was poorly planned.</s>AMR SHALANKY: Most of the NGOs have been taken by surprise that this is actually happening. I have personal friends who are judges who don't know until today which electoral circuits they're supposed to be supervising.</s>SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Cairo.
On Saturday, Egyptians are voting in a referendum on nine amendments to the country's restrictive constitution. Many of those who demonstrated to overthrow former President Hosni Mubarak are urging a "no vote" because they don't accept the constitution that allowed his authoritarian rule.