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Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi is to deliver a speech in front of the upper house of legislature on Saturday, expected to focus on plans to revive the country\u2019s faltering economy and renew dialogue calls with the opposition, reported Al Arabiya.<\/p>\n
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Last week, Mursi passed all legislative powers to the Shura Council after the official results of a divisive constitution referendum came out and the new charter was approved on Wednesday. The president then appointed 90 new council members to the upper house of parliament according to his constitutional prerogatives. <\/p>\n
Accordingly, the upper house will have legislative powers until a new lower house is elected in a vote likely to take place early in 2013.<\/p>\n
But as Mursi hopes that the quick adoption of the constitution and holding elections to a permanent new parliament soon will help end the long period of turmoil, divisions in the country remain persistent. <\/p>\n
Egypt\u2019s opposition accused President Mursi\u2019s Islamist allies of trying to muzzle dissent on Friday after prosecutors decided to investigate whether prominent government critics were guilty of sedition.<\/p>\n
The probe, which comes a month after Mursi replaced the chief prosecutor, further sours the political climate as the leader and his opponents face off over the new constitution.<\/p>\n
Critics of the new charter say it uses vague language, fails to enshrine the rights of women and minorities and does little to champion the rights of Egyptians who rose up last year to overthrow army-backed strongman Hosni Mubarak.<\/p>\n
Supporters say it protects personal rights that were often trampled upon during the Mubarak era and a subsequent spell of army rule.<\/p>\n
The constitution text won about 64 percent approval in a two-stage referendum but Mursi\u2019s opponents vowed to continue protests and rejected his calls for a national dialogue.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors ordered the inquiry into three of the president\u2019s most prominent opponents on Thursday – former Arab League chief Amr Moussa, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei and leftist Hamdeen Sabahy.<\/p>\n
Moussa and Sabahy both challenged Mursi for the presidency in a June election which followed the 2011 uprising.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor\u2019s office said the three had been accused of inciting supporters to rise up and overthrow Mursi, the country\u2019s first fairly elected leader.<\/p>\n
Mursi\u2019s critics saw an attempt to intimidate them into silence and vowed to continue challenging his rule.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe this is orchestrated by the Brotherhood leadership,\u201d Hussein Abdel Ghani, a spokesman for the country\u2019s main opposition umbrella group, told Reuters. \u201cThe Mubarak regime used to order the same tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we are going to use our full rights, our civil tactics, to demonstrate our opposition to this regime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The charged atmosphere makes it harder for Mursi to bolster his authority and muster a consensus for unpopular austerity measures vital to preventing a weak economy from collapsing.<\/p>\n
Source: Alarabiya.net<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi is to deliver a speech in front of the upper house of legislature on Saturday, expected to focus on plans to revive the country\u2019s faltering economy and renew dialogue calls with the opposition, reported Al Arabiya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n