Opponents of Egypt's Morsi-backed charter urge "no" vote instead of boycott CAIRO - A fractious coalition opposed to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi urged its followers Wednesday to vote "no" on a contentious Islamist-backed draft constitution rather than boycott the referendum altogether. The referendum, which starts Saturday for Egypt's 51 million eligible voters and began Wednesday for Egyptians living abroad, comes amid a chaotic legal atmosphere in which the nation's judiciary is as divided as the country itself. In Egypt, judges are required to supervise polling sites during elections and referendums. At the moment, some of the country's most prominent judicial organizations have refused to do so. Because there are not enough willing judges to cover all the polling sites on one day, Egypt's electoral commission - called the Higher Electoral Committee - said early Wednesday that voting on the draft charter would take place on two consecutive Saturdays. Ten provinces, including most urban areas, will vote Dec. 15, and the rest will vote Dec. 22, although that decision may be legally challenged. The process of drafting the new charter and the document itself have revealed a profound gulf in how Egypt's revolutionaries see themselves and their future, with Islamists who back Morsi on one side and a loose alliance of liberal, secular, Christian and figures from the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak on the other. Attempts in recent days to bridge the divide have failed. Opposition leaders, including the Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, refused to attend a "national dialogue" Morsi called last week to solve the political crisis. An effort by the head of Egypt's military to bring an array of Egyptians together to talk was postponed indefinitely Wednesday because of low attendance. In rival street protests in the past two weeks, each side has deemed the other illegitimate. The referendum on the draft charter has crystallized the differences: Morsi supporters see it as the culmination of the revolution and a step toward a more democratic Egypt. His opponents cast the document as the illegitimate product of an Islamist-dominated assembly that has ignored their desire for greater protections for women, children and free expression. But the opposition has remained fragmented and lacks a clear strategy. Until Wednesday, some leaders had insisted that the legitimacy of the referendum was in question and that the vote must therefore be boycotted. Others had said doing so would mean losing at the polls and urged a "no" vote. Even if the opposition had unified on the question, analysts said, it seemed highly unlikely that it would have overcome the vast organizational and street power of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood backers, who have emerged as Egypt's dominant post-revolutionary political force. Sharaf Al-Hourani and Ingy Hassieb contributed to this report.