Eleven people have been killed in clashes between security forces and protesters loyal to toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's health ministry has confirmed.
The violence came on the first of two days of voting on a new constitution that could replace a charter approved before the Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi was ousted in a coup in July 2013.
The ministry said the deaths happened in Cairo, the nearby province Giza and two areas south of the capital - Bani Suef and Sohag.
Local officials said four Brotherhood supporters were killed in the bloodiest fighting in Sohag, with 20 wounded and three policemen also hurt.
The Interior Ministry blamed the Brotherhood, claiming its supporters had opened fire on people headed for polling stations, killing four and wounding nine more, including a police officer, the state news agency reported.
A further 28 people were wounded in fighting as the country went to the polls for the first time since the end of Morsi's rule, the ministry said.
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood supporters march in al Ayaat village at Giza Two small bombs exploded in Cairo and the Nile Delta city of Mahalla, but there were no injuries.
Most of the dead an injured are thought to be supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, who are still backing Morsi and have called for a boycott of the vote, which could set the stage for a presidential bid by army chief General Abdel Fattah al Sisi.
General Sisi inspected a polling station after voting began, dressed in desert fatigues and wearing his trademark dark sunglasses.
The draft constitution deletes Islamic language written into Egyptian law and strengthens state bodies, including the army, police and judiciary, that defied Morsi.
Soldiers stand guard at a polling station in Cairo It is expected to pass easily, backed by a large number of the millions of Egyptians who staged mass protests against Morsi and the Brotherhood in June 2012.
There has been little or no sign of a campaign against the draft, with one moderate Islamist party saying its activists were arrested while campaigning for a no vote.
Gamal Zeinhom, a 54-year-old waiting to cast his vote in Cairo, said: "We are here for two reasons - to eradicate the Brotherhood and take our rights in the constitution."
The poll is seen as a milestone in a transition plan billed by the army as a path back to democracy in Egypt, where a succession of state crackdowns have wiped out many of the freedoms won after the 2011 uprising against dictator Hosni Mubarak.
Egyptians hold a poster of late president Nasser and General Sisi A presidential election could follow as soon as April.
The prospect of a more stable government sent the Egyptian stock market to its highest level since Morsi was toppled.
General Sisi ousted Morsi, Egypt's first freely-elected head of state, last July. His Islamist opponents say he is the mastermind of a coup that kindled the worst internal strife in Egypt's modern history and revived an oppressive police state.
The general's backers see the 59-year-old as someone who can stabilise Egypt against plots to divide the nation.
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), a Geneva-based group that works to uphold the rule of law, described the draft constitution as highly flawed.
It said in a statement: "The referendum campaign has taken place within a context of fear, intimidation and repression, calling into question the fairness of the entire process."
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