Fresh opposition protests in Cairo
2012-12-18 20:39
Cairo - Fresh opposition protests are to be held in Cairo on
Tuesday over a draft constitution shaped by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's
Islamist allies that looks on track to be adopted this weekend.
Much of the judiciary is also stepping up its challenge to
Morsi's authority and the proposed charter, which is being put to voters in a
split referendum held last Saturday and the coming Saturday.
A group of top judges on Monday announced it would boycott supervision
of the second round of the referendum. And a protest by hundreds of prosecutors
forced the prosecutor general appointed last month by Morsi to tender his
resignation.
The fierce opposition underlined a split in Egyptian society
over Morsi and the draft constitution.
More than three weeks of protests, rallies and clashes have
shaken the country and polarised it into two camps: Morsi and Islamists
including his Muslim Brotherhood on one side; and secularists, liberals,
leftwingers and Christians on the other.
Violent confrontations between pro- and anti-Morsi
supporters early this month outside the presidential palace in Cairo killed
eight people and wounded hundreds, and prompted the army to deploy troops and
tanks around the compound.
The prolonged instability is badly damaging Egypt's economy
as tourists, foreign investors and creditors skitter away.
The International Monetary Fund has put on pause a $4.8bn loan,
and Germany has postponed indefinitely a plan to forgive up to $316m of Egypt's
debt.
Tuesday's rallies are to take place outside the presidential
palace and in Tahrir Square, focus of the revolution that toppled former leader
Hosni Mubarak last year.
Official results
The opposition National Salvation Front called on Egyptians
to join the protests "to defend their freedoms, prevent fraud and reject
the draft constitution".
It claims the December 15 first round of the referendum was
marred by numerous "irregularities and violations", including women
barred from polling stations, and fake judges being used.
The Muslim Brotherhood and state media said 57% of voters
supported the draft constitution in the first round, according to an unofficial
tally, putting the text on course to be adopted in the 22 December second
round.
Official results will be given only after that final stage
of voting.
But for those results to be valid, polling must be overseen
by judges - and on Monday the State Council Judges Club said it would boycott
Saturday's vote because the authorities had failed to live up to their promises.
The association has demanded that a "siege" of the
Supreme Constitutional Court by Brotherhood supporters be lifted. But the
action has continued despite the presence of soldiers and police, it said.
A sit-in by hundreds of prosecutors in Cairo's High Court
also prompted the prosecutor general appointed by Morsi last month, Talaat
Ibrahim Abdallah, to offer his resignation.
The Supreme Judicial Council will examine Abdallah's
resignation next Sunday, a day after the final round of voting, a judicial source
told AFP.
Abdallah had been appointed to succeed Abdel Meguid Mahmud,
whom Morsi had sacked by decree under near-absolute powers he controversially
gave himself, but which he was forced to rescind this month under pressure from
the protesters.
Opposition forces had called Meguid Mahmud's firing a
"coup" and judges decried it as an attack on the judiciary's
independence.
