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| Africa North |
| Egypt announces early election a day after carnage |
| 2014-01-27 |
| [DAWN] Egypt Sunday announced early presidential elections likely to anoint the general who overthrew president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Timeprinciple, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... , as the country reeled from a weekend of violence that killed dozens of people. Interim president Adly Mansour announced the poll in a televised address, a day after 49 people died in festivities between Islamist protesters and police and thousands rallied in Cairo in support of military chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Sisi was expected to declare his candidacy for the election, scheduled before mid-April, after a show of support including Saturday's large rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square. But the weekend festivities and bombings also highlighted the interim government's precarious grip seven months after Morsi's overthrow. The violence came as Egypt commemorated the 2011 uprising that overthrew veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , leading to three years of tumult that many hope Sisi's election will end. Over Friday and Saturday, six bombs went kaboom!in Cairo and the canal city of Suez, killing six people and wounding dozens in an escalation of a bully boy campaign Mansour has pledged to eradicate. Separately, 49 people were killed in festivities when police clamped down on protests by Morsi's Islamist supporters and anti-military activists, the health ministry said. As Mansour addressed the nation to announce the early presidential election, relatives of those killed on Saturday assembled outside a Cairo morgue, chanting anti-military slogans. "Down with the military! The people want to topple the regime!" they chanted outside the Zeinhom morgue as they collected the corpses of loved ones. A statement signed by nine Egyptian human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. groups accused the police of using "live ammunition" against demonstrators. Police said the protesters themselves had used weapons. Police in the capital bolstered defences outside their buildings and closed access roads after the weekend bombings that all targeted police facilities. In his address, Mansour, a judge the military appointed as interim president to replace Morsi, pledged to "uproot (terrorists) and show them no mercy". |
| Posted by:Fred |