Anti-morsi fervor grows in Egypt despite shift in conflicting election dates
Whether it’s angry Copts or the ongoing demonstrations against his rule, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi continues to face growing challenges and growing nationwide unrest – even while he tries to win a trip to outer space.
Morsi’s latest move was to issue a presidential decree amending the dates for the four-stage parliamentary elections in order to placate angry Copts and meet the Christians’ demands that the dates not coincide with Coptic Easter. The first stage of balloting will now be on April 27.
Speaking to The Media Line before the change of dates for the election was announced, former lawmaker Mohamed Abu Hamed said, “These are illegal parliamentary elections. Morsi intentionally chose the days of Coptic Christian holidays to hold the elections so people won’t vote. A conspiring regime is doing all it can to control the nation.”
While demonstrations against Morsi and his party of the Muslim Brotherhood are spreading and intensifying ahead of a planned March trip to Moscow, he still found time to reshuffle his cabinet – seen as a test of public opinion.
Last week, Morsi dismissed one of his deputies, Khaled Abdel Malak, who also represents the Salafi Al-Nour party. “This dismissal was based on personal conflicts and not political,” the president’s office said.
The Salafis have responded by seeking other allies to secure their future under the Muslim Brotherhood government. Several media reports said the party is seeking an alliance with the Salvation Front party led by Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a 2005 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Morsi’s moves came as calls for civil disobedience that began in Port Said continued into the seventh day, with other cities following suit.
Following Friday prayers, thousands of protesters marched through a number of Egyptian cities, united in what they called “The Friday of Prosecuting the Regime.”
The demonstrators called for continuous civil disobedience in all private and government sectors and for a boycott of the April elections, which they call “illegal.”
In Cairo, the protesters erected a stage in front of the presidential palace in the Ithadiya neighborhood and gave speeches against the rule of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Beware of the Muslim Brotherhood,” admonished one protester who was afraid to give her name. “We have to continue protesting. If we stop now, we will never be able to get rid of them,” she told The Media Line.
Groups of demonstrators representing the opposition gathered in Tahir Square and marched to the presidential place to show their discontent. While no clashes with police were reported, there were those who saw the protesters as being responsible for the recent violence in the streets. The Islamist group Al-JamaaIslamiya recently announced it had created independent militias to combat protesters and “thugs.”
According to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, the group is calling for the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi groups to join forces. The paper says that police squads are not sufficiently armed to defend themselves, so the militias will help the police restore order.
So far the riots and protests that began in Cairo on February 15 have resulted in at least 125 injuries inflicted by the riot police, according to the Egyptian official newspaper AlAhram. Protesters are accusing Morsi of being responsible for the deaths of at least 70 people in the Port Said soccer riots on January 30, after which the president declared a 30-day state of emergency there, and in the cities of Ismailia and Suez. They are calling for Morsi to be tried for those deaths.
The unrest is having a crippling effect on Egypt’s economy. On February 13, Moody’s Investors Service lowered Egypt’s bond rating to the B3 category, six levels below investment grade, according to Arabian Business magazine. The downgrade in rating was due to the “on-going unsettled political conditions and recent escalation of civil unrest in the form of violent clashes between protesters and security forces and the ensuing 30-day state of emergency declared by President Morsi in January,” Moody’s wrote.
Moody’s noted that a further downgrade may be likely if the political uncertainty continues.
Amr Moussa, former chairman of the Arab League and head of a major opposition party, said the upcoming elections “will coincide with the collapse of the Egyptian foreign currency reserves. This will further intensify the disturbances in the country.”
But it was the opposition group called the April 6 Youth Movement that came up with a truly innovative way to show its discontent with Morsi. On its Facebook page, the group announced that the president recently entered an online contest organized by Axe Cosmetics to win a trip into space.
So far Morsi has received more than 21,000 votes, putting him in first place. “Maybe he can rule people on the moon. I don’t believe that he is fit to rule our country,” a young taxi driver told The Media Line.
During his presidential campaign, Morsi was hailed as being a research scientist at the NASA space center. If the president wins, he will go to Global Space Camp in Orlando, Florida.