Egypt: Opposition Group Says Morsi’s Backtrack On Decree ‘Meaningless’

A major Egyptian opposition party has said that, despite the decision to scrap the controversial decree giving President Morsi extensive new powers, “confrontation” will continue, the state-run MENA news agency reported on Sunday.

Following hours of talks with political and public figures at Morsi’s presidential palace on Saturday, it was announced that the Egyptian president would annul the November 22 decree.

However, opposition groups reacted angrily to the news that a referendum on Morsi’s controversial draft constitution will still go ahead later this month because it is not ‘legally possible’ to stop it.

On Sunday, an unnamed senior official of opposition bloc, The National Salvation Front, told MENA: “One of our major demands is to postpone the vote on the constitution. Failing to respond to this will lead to more confrontation.”

The opposition has repeatedly said that draft constitution, rushed through by the constitutional panel, disregards the rights of women and ignores personal freedoms. Following Morsi’s decree and the news of the constitution, protests spread across Egypt in numbers not seen since the ousting of ex-president, Hosni Mubarak.

Khaled Dawood, the spokesperson for the National Salvation Front, told Al Jazeera that annulling the decree was “relatively meaningless”.

“The key issue of securing the process of adopting of the constitution is done,” he said.

Dawood explained that while the group agree that Morsi was fairly elected with 51.7 per cent of the vote, “48 per cent did not vote for him. That means that he has to compromise, he has to build consensus.”

The Front are set to meet later on Sunday to make a formal response to Morsi’s latest move.