June 19, 2013
Across the country, activists with the Tamarod - or Rebel - campaign have been collecting signatures expressing lost confidence in Morsi and demanding early elections.
Some view the campaign, and planned demonstrations on June 30, as an exercise in democracy.
May Wahba, head of Tamarod's media department, argues the legally elected Morsi lost legitimacy when he assumed extraordinary powers for several weeks late last year.
She says anti-Morsi campaigners would like to use the same democratic way he came to power to make him leave. She cites Article 1 of the constitution, which places power in the hands of the people.
Tamarod Central Committee member Sayed Gharib contends Morsi has betrayed the spirit of the January, 2011 revolution and the hundreds who died carrying it out.
Gharib says the revolution brought Morsi to power, but “the legality of the ballot box and constitutional legality will not stand above the blood of the martyrs.”
Tamarod campaigners say they have collected the signatures of 15 million people, more than the number who voted for Morsi last year.
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INSIGHT: Egypt – Mass Protests Planned for Morsi Anniversary
Organizers
of a campaign seeking to force an early presidential election are
planning to stage mass demonstrations across Egypt on June 30, the first
anniversary of the presidency of Mohamed Morsi. The protests are aimed
at showing the extent of popular disaffection with the government. There
is a risk that they will result in renewed street violence, after a
period of relative calm, following the bloody clashes in December and
January. The prospect of Morsi stepping down or being forced out of
office seems remote, however.The Tamarrod (“rebel” in Arabic)
movement claims to have almost reached its target of securing 15
million signatures on a petition calling for the withdrawal of
confidence in Morsi. The target is based on exceeding the 13.2 million
votes Morsi received in the second round of the presidential election
last year. Organizers have indicated that they will present the petition
to the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC). The Freedom and Justice
Party (FJP), affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and previously led
by Morsi, has dismissed the petition as little more than an opinion
poll, and stated that there are no constitutional grounds for
withdrawing confidence in a president purely on the basis of a large
number of signatures.
Opposition struggles to retain coherence
The Tamarrod campaign was launched by activists that had been involved in the Kifaya (“enough”) movement, which was one of the first groups to press for the ouster of the former president, Hosni Mubarak, in the mid-2000s. It has since been joined by other activist groups from the later period of the Mubarak era, as well as by trade unions and some of the parties that make up the opposition National Salvation Front (NSF). The strength of the support for the petition has exposed the shortcomings of the NSF, which has been plagued by internal differences and has failed to take a consistent position on whether it is prepared to operate within the existing political process.
The NSF has demanded that Morsi replace the prime minister, Hisham Qandil, and form a government of national unity as a condition for taking part in the election of a new lower house of parliament. However, some parties within the NSF have indicated that they would participate in the election even if these conditions are not met. The NSF has also refused repeated invitations from Morsi to engage in a national dialogue, but some prominent figures in the opposition front have taken part in meetings with the president himself or his colleagues. A recent encounter between Amr Moussa, one of the leaders of the NSF, and Khairat al‑Shater, a deputy to the supreme guide of Muslim Brotherhood, sparked a particularly acrimonious row.
“The [ruling party] has acknowledged that there is room for criticism of the government’s performance, but it has dismissed suggestions that Morsi would even consider standing down.” – Pratibha Thaker, Economist Intelligence Unit
Morsi, meanwhile, has sought to mobilize patriotic support behind the government on the question of Ethiopia’s construction of a dam on the Blue Nile, which could have a major impact on Egypt’s principal source of water.
The crux of Tamarrod
The
Tamarrod petition starts with seven statements in colloquial Egyptian
Arabic explaining why the people no longer want Morsi as their leader.
The statements raise issues including the lack of security; the
persistence of poverty; the “collapse of the economy” and the resort to
“begging” for foreign assistance; the failure to bring to justice those
responsible for killing protesters in January and February 2011; and
Egypt’s continued “subservience” to the United States. The petition goes
on to assert that Morsi has failed to realize any of the goals of the
revolution—bread, freedom and justice—and the final part is a
declaration that the signatory withdraws confidence in Morsi, calls for
the early election of a new president and vows to uphold the
revolution’s goals.
Opposition struggles to retain coherence
The Tamarrod campaign was launched by activists that had been involved in the Kifaya (“enough”) movement, which was one of the first groups to press for the ouster of the former president, Hosni Mubarak, in the mid-2000s. It has since been joined by other activist groups from the later period of the Mubarak era, as well as by trade unions and some of the parties that make up the opposition National Salvation Front (NSF). The strength of the support for the petition has exposed the shortcomings of the NSF, which has been plagued by internal differences and has failed to take a consistent position on whether it is prepared to operate within the existing political process.
The NSF has demanded that Morsi replace the prime minister, Hisham Qandil, and form a government of national unity as a condition for taking part in the election of a new lower house of parliament. However, some parties within the NSF have indicated that they would participate in the election even if these conditions are not met. The NSF has also refused repeated invitations from Morsi to engage in a national dialogue, but some prominent figures in the opposition front have taken part in meetings with the president himself or his colleagues. A recent encounter between Amr Moussa, one of the leaders of the NSF, and Khairat al‑Shater, a deputy to the supreme guide of Muslim Brotherhood, sparked a particularly acrimonious row.
“The [ruling party] has acknowledged that there is room for criticism of the government’s performance, but it has dismissed suggestions that Morsi would even consider standing down.” – Pratibha Thaker, Economist Intelligence Unit
Morsi, meanwhile, has sought to mobilize patriotic support behind the government on the question of Ethiopia’s construction of a dam on the Blue Nile, which could have a major impact on Egypt’s principal source of water.
The crux of Tamarrod
Members
of the Tamarrod ("Tamarud" in some transcriptions) movement hold a news
conference at their headquarters in Cairo May 29, 2013. (Reuters)
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- Egypt top cleric: Protests against Morsi permitted (thestate.com)
- Luxor protests against Morsi's new governor for the city - former Islamist terror ... - The Independent (independent.co.uk)
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