Voters in Kenya have waited for hours to cast ballots on a new constitution that could spell a new era for the country - curtailing the president’s enormous powers and giving citizens a bill of rights

With memories fresh of the ethnically charged violence that left more than 1,000 people dead following the disputed 2007 election, police were deployed en masse across the country as voters overwhelmed polling stations in some locations, and one Nairobi site saw dozens of Kenyans who had not yet voted force their way in after authorities tried to shut it down at the official closing time.

Enthusiasm for the new constitution appeared high. In the Nairobi slum of Kibera, lines formed as early as 3 am local time, while voters at some Rift Valley sites waited five hours or more.

Returns from about 30% of the polling stations showed the “yes” camp taking an early lead, with about 64% of the votes cast, compared to 36% for the “no” camp, according to Kenya’s election commissioner Ahmed Issack Hassan.

“It’s a struggle between the haves and the have-nots in this country, and the haves are trying to maintain the status quo,” said James Otumba, a 43-year-old teacher who was shot in the chest during the 2007-08 violence.

“This is a revolution taking place in this country … This constitution is one thing that can actually reconcile the nation,” he said.

The international community has urged Kenyans to pass the constitution, even as the draft raised emotions over land rights, abortion and Muslim family courts. Kenya’s current constitution, drawn up in the lead-up to Kenya’s 1963 independence from Britain, grants the president sweeping powers.

If passed, the new constitution will dramatically cut back the president’s powers by setting up an American-style system of checks and balances and paving the way for much-needed land reform. Kenyan presidents have long favoured their own ethnic tribes in the distribution of resources, a tremendous source of tension.

The referendum was one of the conditions of the power-sharing agreement between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minster Raila Odinga that ended the 2007-08 violence. Both back the new constitution, and both appealed to Kenyans to vote peacefully.