Anti-Morsi campaign gathers 15 million signatures

15 million signatures have been collected by the Tamarod (“rebellion” in Arabic) campaign demanding Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi’s resignation and calling for early presidential elections. Opponents of Morsi accuse him of stealing the 2011 uprising that resulted in the collapse of Hosni Mubarak’s regime and plan to stage a rally against him June 30, one year after Morsi’s election,according to Voice of Russia.

“The Muslim Brotherhood” listens to the people when they need their votes and then they forget about us,” says a young woman, who confessed she voted for Morsi a year ago, but now she is disappointed, because “nothing has changed.”

The Tamarod campaign was launched in early May by a group of young people – including a few members of Kefaya, one of Egypt’s oldest opposition movements, – all disturbed by the current situation in the country.

The campaign claiming that Morsi has lost the trust of Egyptians has received a widespread support across the country.

Over the past few weeks volunteers have been collecting signatures at traffic intersections, markets and metro stations in Cairo and other Egyptian cities and towns.

The campaigners say almost 15 million Egyptians have already signed the petition, which is 2 million more than the 13 million voters who supported Morsi in June 2012 election.

Mohamed Abdel Aziz, a member of the campaign’s central committee, said Tamarod will soon hold a press conference to announce the total number of petitions gathered.

Meanwhile Tamarod is planning to hold a press-conference on Thursday as part of preparations for mass protests scheduled for 30 June.

Egypt’s defence minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has warned that the army will intervene if violence breaks out during the rallies on the first anniversary of Morsi’s election. The official has said it was the army’s duty to act to prevent chaos.

R.S