EGYPT: Demonstrators gather in Cairo's Tahrir Square ahead of President Mohamed Mursi's unity address to the nation

Record ID: 860463

  • Title: EGYPT: Demonstrators gather in Cairo's Tahrir Square ahead of President Mohamed Mursi's unity address to the nation
  • Date: 29th November 2012
  • Summary: CAIRO, EGYPT (NOVEMBER 29, 2012) (REUTERS) NEWSPAPER STAND
  • Embargoed: 14th December 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt
  • City:
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4CY3ZZNUY9LJECNYT5MN1N2VJ
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  • Story Text: Demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square prepared for another day of protest on Thursday (November 29), steeling themselves for further action in a bid to get President Mohamed Mursi to rescind his move to take sweeping new powers.
    Many protesters stayed in their tents on the square while others kept the chanting going during the early hours of Thursday morning, expressing their unwillingness to compromise their demands ahead of the President's unity speech on Thursday.
    In his speech, Mursi was expected to explain why he had issued his decree and to outline what he saw as conspiracies being planned by his non-Islamist political opponents, officials said. He would also call for national unity.
    "We refuse Mursi's existence as a President because we did not approve of him since the beginning. But the Egyptian people have a problem with their emotions towards religion, and this is what pressured us before and made people neglect us here in Tahrir. This time, people have understood who the Brotherhood are as well as the politics they use; so I think this mistake will not be repeated again," said Amr El Sawy, one of the protesters in the sit-sin.
    The assembly tasked with writing the constitution ended its session in the early hours on Thursday, wrapping the final draft it will put to vote later in the day.
    But as Mursi's opponents pressed on with their week-old protests in Tahrir Square, critics said the Islamist-dominated assembly's bid to finish the constitution quickly could make matters worse.
    The fractious ranks of Egypt's non-Islamist opposition have been united on the street by crisis, although they have yet to build an electoral machine to challenge the well-organized Islamists, who have beaten their more secular-minded rivals at the ballot box in two elections held since Mubarak was ousted.
    The Islamist parties have already called for mass demonstrations on Saturday (December 1) in Tahrir Square, raising worries on the Egyptian street of possible violence should there be confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties.
    Concerns have also been raised internationally regarding Mursi's constitutional decree, which is believed to have put Egypt's democracy temporarily on hold.
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