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Supporters of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi have begun to gather in a Cairo neighbourhood for a rally, in response to opposition plans for a major anti-government demonstration over the weekend. Witnesses yesterday said that Morsi supporters have started gathering at the Rabaa mosque in Nasr City to assert that “the government’s legitimacy is a red line”.
Some anti-Morsi supporters are also expected to gather in Tahrir Square during the day, demanding the president’s resignation, ahead of a separate major planned demonstration tomorrow.
Deepening divisions among ruling Islamist and the largely secular opposition have heightened tensions in Egypt.
Ahead of yesterday’s demonstrations, clashes in the north of the country between Islamists and opposition protesters left one person dead and 434 injured, the Egyptian Health Ministry said.
Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group said one of its supporters was killed in the clashes.
The opposition accuses Morsi, who is Egypt’s first democratically elected president, of failing to fulfil the objectives of the revolution that forced Hosni Mubarak from power in 2011.
They accuse the ruling Islamists of focusing on consolidating power and failing to address Egypt’s economic and social problems.
Morsi’s supporters have vowed that he will complete his four-year term, which ends in 2016.
On Wednesday, Morsi defended his performance in his first year in office. He admitted that mistakes had been made, but offered no concessions for his opponents. — Al Jazeera
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