Egypt opposition gives first sign of compromise in crisis However, other groups, including moderate Islamist parties, said they would campaign for a "no" vote, forcing the Front's hand. There was also an extraordinary call from the army, made apparently without prior consultation with the presidency, for national talks, which it demanded the opposition attend on Wednesday. That invitation was rescinded promptly after the opposition agreed to take part in the referendum. At a press conference, Hamdeen Sabbahi, a left-wing Nasserist politician who came third in the presidential election, said: "The Front decided to call on the people to take part in the referendum and reject this draft constitution and vote no." The Front also demanded that there would be national and international monitoring, full judicial supervision and that the referendum would be held on one day rather than two. "If these guarantees aren't in place by the day of the referendum on Saturday, we will withdraw from it," Mr Sabbahi said. That may prove impossible, since at present only 9,000 judges have signed up as monitors, for 13,000 polling stations nationwide. Amongst other last-minute changes, the president decreed that citizens would have to vote in their home constituency, meaning that hundreds of thousands of students and migrant workers are unlikely to be able to cast a ballot, casting further doubt on turn-out. Some claim this will benefit the president, as hotel workers in tourist-heavy areas such as Sharm el-Sheikh who fear Islamism will damage the industry will be heavily affected, though rural residents working as labourers in Cairo might be more likely to vote in favour of the new constitution. In a sign of what many feel is already a more repressive atmosphere even before the constitution comes into force, an atheist activist from a Christian background was sentenced to three years in prison for blasphemy on Wednesday. Alber Saber had been accused of posting on his Facebook page the controversial anti-Islam video that caused protests round the world in September, though he denied it and it was not clear what the precise charges were. "This is a farce," his mother, Kariman Ghali, told The Daily Telegraph. The verdict was absolutely that of a religious court. They didn't listen to our lawyers' defence.