Egypt on edge ahead of more protests

CAIRO -Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egypt’s embattled president held rival sit-ins in separate parts of Cairo Saturday on the eve of opposition-led mass protests aimed at forcing Mohammed Morsi from power, according to AP.

The demonstrations follow days of deadly clashes in a string of cities across the country that have left at least seven people dead, including an American, and hundreds injured. The violence — and wide expectation of more to come Sunday during rallies that the opposition says will bring millions into the streets — has fed an impending sense of doom in the country.

Egypt has been roiled by political unrest in the two years since uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak, but the upcoming round of protests starting Sunday promises to be the largest and perhaps the bloodiest. The turmoil has compounded the country’s social and economic woes, with crime surging, unemployment high and with shortages of basic items not uncommon.

That has all come in the buildup toward Sunday — the anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration as Egypt’s first freely elected leader — when opposition groups promise massive demonstrations to force the Egyptian leader from office. The June 30 protesters have vowed to remain peaceful, while the military said it would intervene if violence breaks out.

With expectations of violence running high, the military has dispatched troops backed by armored personnel carriers to reinforce military bases on the outskirts of cities expected to be flashpoints. In Cairo, the additional forces were deployed to military facilities in the suburbs and outlying districts. Army troops are also moving to reinforce police guarding the city’s prisons to prevent a repeat of the nearly half dozen jail breaks during the chaos of the 2011 uprising.

The opposition counters by saying Morsi has lost his legitimacy through a series of missteps and authoritarian policies and insist that early presidential elections must be held within six months of his ouster.

Many Egyptians fear the new round of unrest could trigger a collapse in law and order similar to the one that occurred during the 2011 revolt. Already, residents in some of the residential compounds and neighborhoods to the west of the city are reporting gunmen showing up to demand protection money or risk being robbed.

Egypt group: 22 million signatures against Morsi

The youth group leading the campaign against Egypt’s president says it has collected the signatures of 22 million Egyptians who want to remove the Morsi.

Mahmoud Badr, a leader of the Tamarod, or rebel, movement said Saturday that 22,134,460 Egyptians have signed the petition demanding President Mohammed Morsi’s ouster.

Badr did not say whether there had been an independent audit of the signatures.

The announcement came on the eve of massive protests planned by Tamarod, which started off the campaign saying it wanted to collect more signatures than the some 13 million votes Morsi won in his narrow 2012 victory in the presidential election.

R.S