Cairo: Backers and opponents of Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi Wednesday clashed outside the presidential palace in Cairo where hundreds from both sides are gathering.
Protesters in each camp hurled stones at each other after they chanted pro and anti-Mursi slogans, in a fresh sign of sharp divisions in Egypt over the Islamist president’s moves. There were no reports of casualties.
Mursi’s opponents started late Tuesday an open-ended strike outside the presidential palace in the eastern Cairo quarter of Helipolis to protest his decree granting himself sweeping new powers. Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood Wednesday called on its followers to gather in the site to show support for Mursi, raising fears about possible violence with opponents.
Wednesday’s clashes, the latest between Mursi’s supporters and opponents since he issued the decree on November 22, stopped after people from both sides separated them with traffic barriers. Security personnel guarding the presidential palace did not interfere.
At least three people were killed in similar violence late last month. Under the decree, Mursi, Egypt’s first elected Islamist president, has made all his decisions and laws above judicial scrutiny, infuriating the judiciary.
The opposition has given Mursi until Friday to reverse the decree and suspend a public vote on a controversial draft constitution set for December 15. Mursi said his measures are temporary until a new constitution is approved and an elected parliament is in place.
His deputy Mahmoud Mekki said Wednesday that the vote would be held as scheduled. “Insistence on holding the referendum is to learn about the opinion of the people [on the charter],” Mekki told reporters.
The secular-minded opposition has condemned the constitution, drafted by an Islamist-controlled assembly, as a sham, ignoring fundamental freedoms.
