Tag Archives: President-hosni

A protester against Egypt’s President Mohamed Mursi waves an Egyptian flag in front of Republican Guard soldiers standing behind a barbed wire barricade guarding the presidential palace in Cairo. (Reuters / Mohamed Abd El Ghany)The Egyptian military are to hold unity talks between political rivals to discuss ways of calming tensions in the country. President Mohamed Morsi is pushing for a controversial referendum vote despite a judicial boycott and opposition rallies. The unity talks on Wednesday evening will not to touch upon politics or the contentious referendum on a recent draft constitution, the country’s top brass says. Morsi and his supporters said they would attend the meeting. The opposition Free Egyptians Party said it plans to attend as well, but was still undecided on the appropriate level of representation.The Egyptian opposition boycotted the previous call for talks initiated by Morsi’s camp over the weekend.The negotiations will be held against the backdrop of a country currently in the grips of its worst political crisis since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime almost two years ago.Morsi unexpectedly signed a decree giving himself unprecedented powers in November, which prompted hundreds of thousands of Egyptians to take to the streets in a protest. After several weeks of political wrangling and a series of pro and anti-Morsi demonstrations, the president agreed to relinquish the sweeping powers on Sunday.Amidst the turmoil, which turned violent on several occasions, the Egyptian Islamist leader set the date for a constitutional referendum. The position criticized the draft constitution as undemocratic and largely based on Sharia law.The crisis continued with many judges refusing to oversee the future referendum. In response the president split the voting into two parts on Tuesday, which are now to be held on December 15 and December 22. Early voting outside of Egypt already kicked off on Wednesday.Morsi also introduced several other measures meant to defuse the crisis, including empowering the Egyptian military to perform police functions and scrapping tax hikes that were meant to secure a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. … Read More