Cairo: Hundreds of Egypt’s opposition activists on Tuesday marched on to the presidential palace, in a fresh sign of anger at President Mohammad Mursi’s decree broadening his powers.
Several opposition groups converged on assembly points in the Egyptian capital before moving on to the presidential palace in the eastern Cairo quarter of Heliopolis where anti-riot police and armoured vehicles were deployed. Barbed wire barricades were also set up around the palace to prevent demonstrators from advancing to the site, reported state media.
Mursi, Egypt’s first elected Islamist president, last month infuriated the opposition and the judiciary by signing a constitutional declaration making all his decisions and laws immune to judicial oversight.
The move has sharply split Egypt and sparked clashes between Mursi’s backers and opponents, leaving at least three people dead. Mursi said his measures are temporary until a new constitution is approved and an elected parliament is in place. A public vote on the new constitution is due on December 15.
The opposition has condemned the constitution, crafted by an Islamist-controlled assembly, as a sham and threatened civil disobedience if the draft is not withdrawn .
Mursi Tuesday met senior state officials and discussed preparations for the referendum, reported the official Midde East News Agency.
“Oh my country, go on a new revolution against the constitutional declaration,” chanted Mursi’s opponents Tuesday in what they called the “last ultimatum” protest.
“These marches aim to send a message to President Mohammad Mursi that he has to listen to the national opposition, who is keen to fulfil the objectives of the revolution,” the opposition said in a statement, referring to a popular revolt that deposed strongman Hosni Mubarak in February last year.
Other protesters, meanwhile, have been camping out in Cairo’s Tahrir Square for more than a week now to push Mursi to rescind his decree and reform the constituent assembly.
In a gesture of backing to the opposition, 12 key independent and opposition party newspapers Tuesday did not hit the newsstands. The move was in order to “stand up to tyranny,” independent daily Al Tahrir said on its website.
“The Egyptian Independent objects to continued restrictions on media liberties, especially after hundreds of Egyptians gave their lives for freedom,” read a message on that newspaper’s website, its only viewable content on Tuesday morning.
Daily Al Masry Al Youm said the papers were “protesting against the articles on the press in the draft constitution and reject [President Mohammad Mursi’s) November 22 decree.”
Four privately owned TV stations plan to stop broadcasting on Wednesday to protest what they described as restrictions on freedom of expression in the draft constitution.
