CAIRO, December 9 (RIA Novosti) - Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has decided to annul his constitutional declaration expanding his powers, a spokesman for a meeting between Morsi and the country’s political leaders said on Sunday.
“The decision has been made to issue a new constitutional declaration,” Islamist politician Selim al-Awa said after the meeting.
Awa also said the referendum on a new draft constitution will not be postponed and will take place at the scheduled date, on December 15.
Prime Minister Hisham Qandil told journalists on Saturday that Morsi has agreed to delay the referendum on a new draft constitution and amend the controversial decree giving him broader powers he issued on November 22.
Morsi met with leaders of several opposition political parties in his residence on Saturday. The sides were discussing ways out of the current political crisis in the country as part of a national dialog the president called for on Thursday.
“The country’s political forces and the president, who gathered on Saturday to hold a national dialog, have agreed to establish a commission to amend the constitutional declaration,” Qandil said.
Morsi's constitutional declaration expanded his executive authority by barring the courts from challenging his decisions. Egypt's highest judicial authority, the Supreme Judicial Council, slammed the move as “an unprecedented attack on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings.”
Opposition groups have been rallying against the constitutional declaration and Morsi's decision to hold a nationwide referendum on the new Constitution on December 15, which they described as too hasty. The referendum's postponement is one of the Egyptian opposition’s key demands.
Earlier this week, violent clashes between Morsi’s supporters and opponents left seven people dead and hundreds injured.
Egypt’s armed forces on Saturday told both sides to resolve the crisis over Morsi's new powers through dialog, saying it would prevent Egypt from going into "a dark tunnel."
