Morsi supporters continue to demonstrate at Rabaa Al-Adaweya Square. Despite the hot weather, hundreds of anti-coup demonstrators had gathered in the midday. Protesters demanding the deposed President Mohamed Morsi's reinstatement chant anti-coup slogans while waving Egyptian flags. By the evening, the square is expected to be filled with people.
Meanwhile, high-level officials from the Muslim Brotherhood have rejected an election timeline proposed by interim President Adly Mansour, who has set out plans to revise the constitution and hold fresh parliamentary elections in the coming months, with a presidential vote possible by early next year. Isam el Aryan, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood and Deputy Chairman of Morsi's former Freedom and Justice Party, says the proposed timeline, "will take the country right back to where it started."
Aryan went on to refer to the constitutional declaration by Mansour as being "a constitutional mandate that will return the country to its starting point issued by a man who was appointed by coup makers."
The party's legal advisor Ahmed Ebu Baraka called the timeline "invalid and illegitimate."
Egypt's new interim president Adly Mansour announced the new timeline yesterday after the military opened fire on Morsi supporters who gathered at the Republican Guard Headquarters believing him to be inside which resulted in the deaths of 51 people.
Adly has issued a 33-article constitutional declaration to regulate the transitional phase that followed the ouster of elected President Mohammad Morsi. The decree stipulates amending the suspended constitution first, then holding parliamentary elections followed by presidential polls. It gives the interim president legislative authority after consulting the government until the new parliament is elected.
SABAH and Agencies