CAIRO: Tens of thousands of Egyptian protesters surged around President Mohamed Mursi’s palace in Cairo yesterday after breaking through barbed wire barricades and climbing onto army tanks guarding the premises.
“The people want the downfall of the regime” and “Leave, leave,” they chanted. Meanwhile, Egypt’s election committee postponed the start of voting for Egyptians abroad in a constitutional referendum at the heart of the political crisis. It said expatriate Egyptians would begin voting on Wednesday instead of today as previously planned, at the request of the Foreign Ministry.
Thousands had marched on the palace after rejecting a call for dialogue by Mursi. Elite Republican Guard units had ringed the palace with tanks and barbed wire on Thursday after a night of clashes between Islamist supporters of Mursi and their opponents that killed seven people.
I dont know why Morsi had to go for the power grab at this juncture? He has given his opponents a chance, and they'd try to cash on it.
Has he taken back the controversial powers yet?
The secular and Christian representatives walked out of the conference in which the draft constitution was being made. The judiciary gave the assembly a drop-dead date of, I think, early December to get the job done. Morsi then gave himself special powers to give himself a leg up above the judicary and the opposition, who were trying to run the clock out.
It's odd when the Islamists are acting more democratic than the secular opposition...but credit is due to Morsi, who has handled this situation with a degree of elegance. And let there be no doubt, the opposition has been behaving quite badly...if not out right seditious.
I dont know why Morsi had to go for the power grab at this juncture? He has given his opponents a chance, and they'd try to cash on it.
Has he taken back the controversial powers yet?
The judiciary, which still is full of Mubarak's appointees, was going to disband the committee that was drafting the new constitution that is going to be voted on, in the same way that it disbanded the parliament after the Muslim brotherhood won a majority. Most of the non-Islamist committee members had walked off the committee in protest at the Islamic measures that the the Islamists were including.
Egypt's urban population probably has a slight majority that is opposed to the Islamists. The over 60% of Egyptians who live in the countryside are overwhelmingly pro-Islamist, however. Between the the rural vote and the urban Islamist vote, the proposed new Islamist constitution would easily get enough votes to pass.
The only thing that could have stopped the constitution being put to the vote was the committee's dissolution, which only the judiciary could do, and was planning to do.
Morsi has now given up his powers, but the work of the committee is over and the judiciary is no longer in a legal position to be able to cancel or postpone the referendum on it.
Ha! I was bang on right! 63% voted in favour of the constitution, AND in urban areas, the majority voted against it.
Egypt has adopted the new constitution. The only remaining step is the new parliamentary election next month.
By the end of February, Egypt will have have a free and fairly elected presented, a constitution backed by most of the population, and a free and fairly elected parliament.
Then the business of running the country can finally get started, with a full government in place.
^ Isnt the parliament in place yet? How is Morsi in government without a parliament?
Egypt's supreme court ruled that the parliament elected after the revolution was improperly elected because members of political parties ran for independent seats. Most external observers acknowledge that this was an effort by the judges (appointed by Hosni Mubarak) to break up a Parliament that the Muslim Brotherhood dominated.
In the absence of parliament, most power was held by the army until a new parliament could be elected according to the new constitution (which was still to be decided). Mursi's ruling in August stripped the Army of political power and gave all government power to himself until a new Parliament could be elected. However, he stated that he would avoid using all the powers he gave himself (as he did not want to rule as a dictator).
The exception was in early december, when he ruled that the courts could not dissolve the constitutional assembly that was about to propose the new constitution assembly, and that anything he did until the new constitution was in place could not be legally challenged.
After the constitution was proposed and the assembly no longer needed, he dropped these exceptional powers. However, he still has the power of both the presidency and parliament until a new parliament is elected, next month.
After the parliament is elected, Morsi will lose the majority of his power to whoever the new Prime Minister is.