mojeNovosti.com
Clashes have erupted in Cairo amidst reports police have deployed teargas against protesters on Tahrir Square. The violence comes in the run up to a planned rally demanding the country’s Islamist president withdraw decrees vastly expanding his power.
Police fired tear gas after hundreds of demonstrators began pelting them with rocks on a street between the US Embassy and the historic square.
Liberal and secular demonstrators, as well as those loyal to former president Hosni Mubarak, have been staging sit-in protests on the square since Friday to demand President Mohamed Morsi revoke recent decrees granting him sweeping powers.
A march planned for later in the day will see demonstrators converging on Tahrir Square from various points throughout the city. The Muslim Brotherhood, who backed Morsi’s presidential bid, and the ultraconservative Nour party decided to cancel a counterdemonstration amidst concerns it would lead to more violence.
Meanwhile, former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahy has launched a movement called the Popular Current and has joined several other opposition leaders to denounce the decree.
He was quoted as saying at a news conference, “Our decision is to continue in the square, and we will not leave before this declaration is brought down.” He also said that Tahrir Square would be a model of an “Egypt that will not accept a new dictator because it brought down the old one.”
Yet President Morsi insists that his power seizure is “temporary”, and is open to political dialogue. He had agreed to meet the country's judges on Monday to negotiate a solution to the crisis, though no amendments to the declaration were forthcoming.
“The presidency reiterates the temporary nature of these measures, which are not intended to concentrate power,”Morsi stated. “The presidency stresses its firm commitment to engage all political forces in an inclusive democratic dialogue to reach a common ground.”
On Thursday Morsi issued an edict which effectively eliminated judicial oversight of his decrees, laws and decisions until a new constitution is ratified. He further said no court could dissolve the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly which is currently drafting the country’s new national charter.
He extended the assembly’s deadline to finish drafting the new constitution by two months, which was previously scheduled to be completed by December 5.
Since Thursday’s announcement, a number of Freedom and Justice Party and Muslim Brotherhood offices throughout the country have been torched – while more than 500 people have been injured in violent protests.
One person has been killed and dozens injured as anti-government protesters attacked a provincial capital's Muslim Brotherhood office.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 strikes have taken place in the past two months, which signals the largest wave of industrial action since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.
This has included action by the nation’s 100,000 doctors, who have threatened to resign en masse. One of Morsi’s main aims through the acquisition of further powers was to deal with this emerging social movement.
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