Americas

Americas

Tens of thousands of Egyptians protest supplementary constitutional declaration

22 June 2012 19:53 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Tens of thousands of Egyptians flood to the Tahrir Square in central capital Cairo on Friday to protest against the supplementary constitutional declaration issued by the ruling military, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The demonstration was stirred up by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Salafists, along with other different groups, who consider the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF)’s supplementary constitutional declaration a coup against democracy.

"The supplementary constitutional declaration keeps the legislative power in the hands of the ruling military and we refuse such measure, it uncovered the military’s intentions to not leave the power," Hussainy Abdel-Fatah, Salafist, told Xinhua.

The supplementary constitutional declaration was issued Sunday by the SCAF, few days before the official announcement about the first post-Mubarak president. It gives the SCAF the legislative power until electing a new People’s Assembly.

The People’s Assembly which was dominated by the Islamaists had been dissolved by the constitutional court on June 14, which ruled the unconstitutionality of some articles related to the parliament election law giving the right to party members to compete for independents seats.

"The SCAF planned to dissolve the parliament to take back the legislative power, as the executive power will be taken by the new president, they want to keep their hands on any decision-maker side in the state," Mohamed al-Aseel, a MB member told Xinhua.

In the square, many people are lifting banners of MB’s presidential candidate Mohamed Morsi who was claimed by his group as a victor.

"According to our counting records, Morsi is the president, any other results won’t be accepted as it means the results have been manipulated," Abdallah Mohamed, a Morsi supporter told Xinhua.

Run-off of the presidential election was held between MB candidate Mohamed Morsi, and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq. Both rivals claimed victory after counting the votes in all governorates.

The Supreme Presidential Elections Commission delayed the announcement of the run-off results, scheduled for Thursday in order to review about 400 appeals submitted by the two candidates.

The ruling military council affirmed that they will transfer power to a newly elected president before the end of June.