Egyptians’ angst over Morsi’s power grab

By Paul Arhewe

Morsi

Six month after his election, Egypt’s democratic leader, President Mohammed Morsi has attracted the denouncement of his people, with the sudden attempt to conduct a referendum on the country’s constitution; in his latest moves to grab more power and clip the wings of the opposition.
If Morsi succeed in this manoeuvring, he may be on the path to acquiring more power and consolidating on his Islamist party’s dominance in Egypt. This is likely to split opposition and make them weak.
The autocratic regime of Hosni Mubarak, spanning three decades, was brought to an abrupt end in 11 February 2011, with the vigorous and unrelenting protests of millions of people in Tahrir Square in Cairo, and across other major Egyptian cities. The emergency law operated by Mubarak’s administration where a supposedly heir successor was groomed, no doubt is one epoch the Egyptians would never want to replay.
The victorious feat spurred by the revolution, making Egypt the second country after Tunisia to have a change of government, fallout from the Arab Spring, provided room for a democratic process which brought Morsi to power.

Again, anti-Morsi protesters in their thousands have gathered in Tahrir Square, opposing his power grabbing moves. In addition, Judges have embarked on industrial action to protest his dictatorial intentions.
The Constituent Assembly, dominated by Morsi’s Islamists is drafting the new constitution, and attempt by the Egypt’s High Constitutional Court on Sunday to issue a ruling to disband the assembly was obstructed by progovernment protesters, who had taken their protest outside the court.
Before now, out of the 100 original members of the Constituent Assembly, 22 of them have resigned and seven reserved members have quitted- most of them are leftists and Coptic Christians.
Their resignation is based on the accusation that the process was rigged to give the Muslim Brotherhood the dominant role in writing a new constitution for the country.
The intended referendum vote on the draft constitution slated for December 15 would not only enshrine Islamist Sharia Law, if the plebiscite is affirmative, but would guarantee the country’s military the essential power it enjoyed during the Mubarak’s rule.
Morsi accrued to himself centralised power through the November 22 decree. In this power grab scheme the Egyptian leader gave himself sole legislative authority and barred judges from ruling against or striking down any of his laws or actions embarked by the Constituent Assembly.
This sudden aggressive move has rattled many in the President’s inner circle. Implications from this move have already aroused negative acrimonies among top officials of the Brotherhood and its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) which mobilized and backed the recent insurrection in Tahrir Square.
Egypt’s top judicial body on Monday said it will oversee the conduct of the referendum. However, another body of judges, the Judges Club, has urged its members to boycott the December 15 vote. The Judges Club represents a powerful but an unofficial body of judges across the country. Its proposed boycott on the referendum is to undermine the plebiscite’s credibility.