Opposition Rejects Mursi’s Referendum, Rivals to Protest Tuesday

Local Editor

Egypt's main opposition coalition rejected on Sunday President Mohamed Mursi's plan for a constitutional referendum this week, saying it risked dragging the country into "violent confrontation".

Mursi's decision on Saturday to retract a decree awarding himself wide powers failed to placate opponents who accused him of plunging Egypt deeper into crisis by refusing to postpone the vote on a constitution shaped by the Brother Hood Movement that Mursi belongs to.
"We are against this process from start to finish," Hussein Abdel Ghani, spokesman of the National Salvation Front, told a news conference, calling for more street protests on Tuesday.
The Front's main leaders - Nobel peace laureate Mohamed al-Baradei, former foreign minister Amr Moussa and leftist Hamdeen Sabahy - did not attend the event.

Hundreds of protesters milled around Mursi's palace, despite tanks, barbed wire and other barriers installed last week after clashes between Islamists and their rivals killed seven people.
"Holding a referendum now in the absence of security reflects haste and an absence of a sense of responsibility on the part of the regime, which risks pushing the country towards violent confrontation," a statement from the Front said.
The Muslim Brotherhood urged the opposition to accept the referendum's verdict.
It said the vote will seal a democratic transition that began when a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak 22 months ago after three decades of military-backed one-man rule.

In parallel, their adversaries said the document being fast-tracked through could threaten freedoms and fails to embrace the diversity of Egypt's 83 million people.
Mursi gave some ground on Saturday when he annulled the fiercely contested decree issued on 22 November that gave him extra powers and shielded his decisions from judicial review.
But some measures taken under the decree remain in force and the president has insisted the referendum go ahead on 15 December.
After the dialogue hosted by Mursi, a spokesman announced that the president had issued a new decree whose first article "cancels the constitutional declaration" of 22 November. He said the referendum could not be delayed for legal reasons.
The opposition leader Ahmed Said earlier described the race to a referendum as an "act of war" against Egyptians.

The cancellation of Mursi's decree, announced after a "national dialogue" on Saturday boycotted by almost all the president's critics, has not bridged a deep political divide.
Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said the referendum was the best test of opinion.
"The people are the makers of the future as long as they have the freedom to resort to the ballot box in a democratic, free and fair vote," he said in a cabinet statement.
The military, which led Egypt's transition for 16 turbulent months after Mubarak fell, told feuding factions on Saturday that only dialogue could avert "catastrophe".
Meanwhile, Mursi's supporters will hold a rival demonstration on Tuesday, the same day as protests organized by the opposition, a Brotherhood spokesman told Agence France Presse.

A coalition called the Alliance of Islamist Forces "is calling for a demonstration Tuesday under the slogan 'Yes to legitimacy'," in support of a constitutional referendum championed by Mursi, Mahmud Ghozlan said.


Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org