Vendors provide demonstrators with food and drink outside the presidential palace, after tens of thousands marched to it pushing past barbed wire fences installed by the Army, in Cairo during the early hours
Egypt’s embattled government showed early signs of bowing to mass pressure applied by an energised secular opposition which wants the country’s President, Mohamed Morsy, to scrap a controversial decree that has given him expanded powers, and defer a referendum on a draft constitution.
On Friday, Mr. Morsy’s Justice Minister, Ahmed Mekki said that the President could postpone the constitutional vote slated for December 15, in case the opposition accepts a dialogue without preconditions.
It was unclear whether the minster’s tantalising gesture would be enough to entice the opposition, which has been buoyed by streaming protests that have rocked Egypt over the last two weeks.
From Tahrir square which has been the icon of the Egyptian uprising, the protests have now shifted outside the President’s residence in Cairo’s upscale Heliopolis district, where they are taking root as a semi-permanent encampment.
The anti-Morsy camp wants the President to withdraw his controversial decree that allows him to put a draft constitution-- which is a document that has not emerged out of political consensus-- beyond the reach of the judiciary. It also opposes a national vote on the draft constitution. Critics say that the Islamists who dominated the 100-member constituent assembly disregarded the rights of women, workers and Christians, when they drafted the national charter.
Well aware of the depth of the protests, which seemed to impart rigidity to the opposition’s stand, the government signalled that it was ready to concede much more. Late on Friday, Egypt’s supreme election commission announced that it was postponing the early voting by Egyptian expatriates that was scheduled on Saturday to December 12.
In tandem, the President’s minister of state for legal affairs, Mohamed Mahsoub, told Al Jazeeratelevision that a consensus has already been achieved on the controversial presidential decree. He pointed out that all parties have agreed on the annulment of Article 6 of the president’s decree, which have given Mr. Morsy blanket powers.
Both sides also agreed on amending article two of the presidential order, which shielded Mr. Morsy from judicial intervention.
Mr. Mahsoub disclosed that once a dialogue with the opposition commenced -- which Mr. Morsy avidly proposed over national television on Thursday night—its prospects would depend on the stance that the opposition would adopt on the draft constitution. "If they (the secularists) consider the constitution as valid, the referendum could be postponed and the constitution may consequently return to the Constituent Assembly” said Mr. Mahsoub.
He added: "If they consider the constitution invalid, then we will have two options: either to re-form the constituent assembly through consensus or elections, or merge the amendments of last year's March declaration with the 1971 constitution.”
Military steps in
As the Egypt’s deepening crisis threatened to tear apart the country’s social fabric, the military has asserted itself, by urging a dialogue between the antagonistic camps. A statement by the military on Saturday warned that it will intervene to stop Egypt going into "a dark tunnel". A spokesman for the military read out the terse statement over television. "The armed forces... realise their responsibility to preserve the higher interests of the country and to secure and protect vital targets, public institutions and the interests of innocent citizens," it said.
"The armed forces affirm that dialogue is the best and only way to reach consensus," it added.
"The opposite of that will bring us to a dark tunnel that will result in catastrophe and that is something we will not allow."
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