Egypt's Sisi says ready to run for president
Iran Press TV
Sat Jan 11, 2014 11:11PM GMT
Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has expressed his readiness to run for president, a move that can turn the clock back to the pre-revolutionary days.
Sisi, who toppled the country's first democratically elected leader Mohamed Morsi last year, made the remarks on Saturday during a speech at an army seminar in the capital Cairo.
'If I run then it must be at the request of the people and with a mandate from my army... We work in a democracy,' he said.
He also called on Egyptians to participate in the upcoming constitutional referendum en masse. The voting will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday. The constitution will pave the way for presidential and parliamentary elections.
More than 52 million Egyptians are eligible to vote on a heavily amended version of an Islamic charter drafted under Morsi.
In December 2012, about 64 percent of voters approved the Islamic constitution in a two-round referendum. After about six months, the Egyptian army ousted Morsi, a former leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, in a military coup.
Egypt has been experiencing unrelenting violence since July 3, 2013, when the army ousted Morsi's government, suspended the constitution and dissolved the parliament. It also appointed the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mahmoud Mansour, as the new interim president.
The government of Mansour has launched a bloody crackdown on Morsi supporters and arrested more than 2,000 Muslim Brotherhood members.
About 1,000 people were killed in a week of violence between Morsi supporters and security forces after police dispersed their protest camps in a deadly operation in mid-August.
The massacre sparked international condemnation and prompted world bodies to call for an independent investigation into the violence.
The Egyptians launched the revolution against the pro-Israeli regime on January 25, 2011, which eventually brought an end to the 30-year dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011.
GJH/NN/AS
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
