The decision of President Mohammad Morsi to repeal his decree has not calmed the ruffled feathers in Egypt. The political crisis over the country’s draft constitution has hardened. Morsi has taken another unpopular step by temporarily giving the military authority the power to arrest civilians to safeguard a referendum on the new charter. His opponents have called for more protests and a boycott to undermine the vote on the draft constitution. Thousands of demonstrators are streaming towards the Presidential palace day after day. The opposition’s decision to boycott the referendum signifies that it has given up hope that it can defeat the draft charter at the polls. It has instead attacked its legitimacy. Questions of Egypt’s national unity and stability overshadow the debate on the contents of the charter. International experts do not think that the draft constitution is more religious than Egypt’s old constitution. But opponents say that it fails to adequately protect individual rights from being curtailed by a future Islamist majority in the Egyptian parliament. The Muslim Brotherhood offices are under attack.
A coalition called the National Salvation Front has declared that holding a referendum in a state of chaos amounted to a reckless and flagrant absence of responsibility. It will endanger national stability. The parliamentary elections in the country are due two months after the referendum. The opposition is preparing to strengthen its presence in parliament. Meanwhile violence rages in the country causing several deaths and the popular resistance which removed the dictator, Hosni Mubarak has now led to political uncertainty in the heart of the Arab world. The Islamists point to a hidden foreign hand behind the opposition to the new charter. Meanwhile, the ceasefire between Hamas and Israelis in the Gaza strip brokered by Morsi has fractured.