Egypt's Supreme Election Commission decided Saturday evening to extend the voting hours of the referendum of the draft constitution to 11:00 p.m. (2100 GMT) due to high turnout, state-run Al-Ahram online reported.

The first stage of constitutional referendum started Saturday morning, with 26 million Egyptians eligible to vote in ten governorates including Cairo and Alexandria. The second stage is slated for Dec. 22 covering the other 17 governorates.

Earlier in the afternoon, the voting which had originally been set to end at 7:00 p.m. (1700 GMT), were extended to 9:00 p.m. ( 1900 GMT).

Egyptians are divided over the draft constitution, with opponents, mostly liberals, leftists and Copts, believing it has been written by an Islamist-dominated assembly that does not represent all Egyptians, while advocates, mostly Islamists, stressed it would re-establish the country's institutions and lead it towards stability and prosperity.