Egypt's opposition groups on Friday rejected a call
by Islamist President Mohammed Morsi for talks on defusing a crisis
sparked by his decree to expand his powers and call for a referendum
on a controversial draft constitution.
"The presidency's failure to respond to the people's demands and
protests has slammed the door on any bid for dialogue," said the
National Salvation Front, an opposition alliance led by Nobel Peace
laureate Mohammed ElBaradei and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa.
ElBaradei dismissed Morsi's call as lacking the "alphabets of the
true dialogue."
In a televised address late Thursday, Morsi said his decree,
making all his decisions immune to judicial review, would be
cancelled after a referendum on a new constitution on December 15,
regardless of the result of the vote.
However, late Friday Ahram online reported that expatriate voting
was to be postponed from December 8 to December 12.
It quoted Hossam Ali Ahmed, secretary-general of the Ghad
El-Thawra Party saying on Twitter that "the presidential office has
agreed to postpone the expatriate voting processions ... which was
the party's condition before accepting negotiations with President
Morsi."
Morsi has called on opposition groups to meet with him on Saturday
for a "comprehensive national dialogue" to find a way out of the
crisis and chart the way forward.
"We will not put our hands in the hands of those responsible for
killing the Egyptian people," Hamdeen Sabahi, an opposition leader,
told Morsi's opponents in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Sabahi was referring to deadly clashes that occurred on Wednesday
between opponents and backers of the Islamist president outside the
presidential palace.
A total of five people were killed and 775 injured in the
violence, according to government officials.
The opposition has repeatedly demanded Morsi's decree be rescinded
and the vote on the draft charter be suspended before any talks can
take place.
Protestors made their way late Friday through wired fences outside
the presidential palace in Cairo as others tried to climb the gate
after security guards withdrew its forces, Arab Media reported.
Thousands of protestors had gathered earlier in front of the
palace in Cairo to put an end to what they described "as dictatorial
powers" of President Morsi, and to postpone the vote on a
controversial new constitution.
In Tahrir Square, the birthplace of a popular revolt that toppled
Hosny Mubarak almost two years ago, protesters carried photos of
Morsi stained with blood.
"Down with Morsi Mubarak," chanted the protesters, implying that
Morsi is a dictator as much as Mubarak was.
The opposition has accused Morsi's supporters of attacking
opponents who were camping outside the presidential palace on
Wednesday.
The violence was Egypt's worst since Morsi took office in June.
Islamists Friday rallied outside the Media City near Cairo to show
support for Morsi. They chanted slogans against media outlets whom
they accused of fostering hostility to the Islamist leader.
Earlier in the day, angry Islamists attended a funeral service for
three followers of the Muslim Brotherhood, who had been killed in
clashes on Wednesday.
The mourners, gathering at the main Cairo Al Azhar Mosque,
chanted: "With our soul and blood, we defend you, Islam."
Clashes erupted Friday between Morsi's backers and opponents in
the Nile Delta provinces of Kafr al-Sheikh and Beheira, the state-run
newspaper Al Ahram reported on its website.
At least 20 people were wounded in the violence, it said.
Morsi's decisions have exposed deep rifts in Egypt and sparked
attacks on offices of the Muslim Brotherhood in several cities.
The opposition says that the new constitution, drafted by an
Islamist-led constituent assembly, ignores fundamental political and
other freedoms and sidelines women.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay Friday cited a long list of
"very worrying" elements in Egypt's draft charter.
Among them, the text does not explicitly ban discrimination on the
basis of gender, religion and origin, Pillay said in Geneva.
Pillay said that while the new law would guarantee some human
rights, "there are also some very worrying omissions and ambiguities,
and in some areas the protections in it are even weaker than the 1971
constitution it is supposed to replace."
Morsi has promised that if the draft document is voted down, he
would set up a new assembly to draw up a new constitutional draft.
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News Column
Egypt Opposition Spurns Morsi Talks, Continues Protests
Dec. 7, 2012
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Source: Copyright 2012 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
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