Egypt's National Salvation Front issues 3 demands for President Morsi

Ahram Online , Wednesday 5 Dec 2012

Front demands immediate reversal of President Morsi's constitutional declaration; scrapping of upcoming constitutional referendum; and formation of new Constituent Assembly

After Tuesday's mass protests, Egypt's National Salvation Front has agreed on three main demands to be put before President Mohamed Morsi to be met before Friday.

The National Salvation Front is a recently-formed umbrella group led by former presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabbahi and Amr Moussa, along with reform campaigner Mohamed ElBaradei

The front – which includes the Constitution Party, the Egyptian Popular Current, the Social Democratic Party and the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, amongst others – will demand that Morsi's recent constitutional declaration be reversed; that the constitutional referendum slated for mid-December be scrapped; and that a new Constituent Assembly be drawn up to draft a constitution "more reflective" of the popular will.

The current constitutional draft was written by an assembly that critics say is dominated by Islamists after repeated walkouts by non-Islamist groups, including the Coptic Church, human rights activists and workers', farmers' and journalists' representatives.

Morsi issued a decree in November giving his decisions immunity from judicial oversight and protecting the Constituent Assembly from a potential court order that might have otherwise dissolved it. The decree was widely attacked by opposition groups as "dictatorial."

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets after calls by several political forces – including the National Salvation Front – to protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square and outside the presidential palace in the capital's Heliopolis district.

Following the mass protests, the Constitution Party, co-founded by ElBaradei, took a decision to stage a sit-in outside the palace. The party is also taking part, along with several other political forces, in a sit-in against the draft constitution and Morsi's constitutional declaration in Tahrir Square.

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