Political groups plan Monday march to Shura Council

Hend Kortam
4 Min Read
Egyptian protestors march to Tahrir Square on 25 January 2013. Groups have called for marches to the Shura Council to coincide with the second anniversary of the Friday of Rage. (AFP Photo / Khaled Desouki)
Egyptian protestors march to Tahrir Square on 25 January 2013. Groups have called for marches to the Shura Council to coincide with the second anniversary of the Friday of Rage. (AFP Photo / Khaled Desouki)
Egyptian protestors march to Tahrir Square on 25 January 2013. Groups have called for marches to the Shura Council to coincide with the second anniversary of the Friday of Rage. (AFP Photo / Khaled Desouki)

Opposition groups and parties plan to march to the Shura Council on Monday, coinciding with the second anniversary of the Friday of Rage.

The political groups held a press conference on Sunday morning and announced in a statement the planned march and a set of demands.

The call for the march comes amid deadly violence in the cities overlooking the Suez Canal has left dozens dead and hundreds injured.

According to the statement the march will be preceded by a prayer honouring those who have died “since 25 January, 2011 [and] the martyrs who have died over the past two days in Suez, Port Said and Ismailia.”

The groups believe the violence in these cities has proven that “we are facing an authority which has not learned the lesson of the toppling of Mubarak’s regime…. an authority that still adopts the security solution and uses violence against protesters who do not feel any real accomplishment in the revolution’s goals.”

After the prayer the protesters will gather at the Sayeda Zeinab Mosque in the afternoon and march to the Shura Council. The groups are calling on the security forces to “understand the lesson” and not assault the protesters who have the right to protest anywhere including outside the Shura Council, so long as they remain peaceful.

The groups, which include the Revolutionary Socialists and 6 April Democratic Front, are demanding “retribution for the martyrs” and the trial of those responsible for their killings.

The groups marching on Monday also include parties that are part of the country’s largest opposition bloc the National Salvation Front; Al-Dostour, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and Social Popular Alliance Party.

They are demanding that the Muslim Brotherhood disband, since it has no “legal status and interferes in the administration affairs of the country.”

Ahmed Aref, the official spokesperson of the Muslim Brotherhood said: “Playing this card while the country is going through a crisis is unfair to say the least.

“We will legitimise the status of the group after the upcoming parliamentary elections.”

The opposition groups are also demanding the reformation of the Ministry of Interior and halting the use of the “void and deformed constitution.”

The Coalition of the Revolutionary Forces is also planning two marches on Monday. One will start at the Sayeda Zeinab Mosque and the other will start at Omar Makram Mosque in Tahrir Square. Both marches will converge at the Shura Council.

Mohamed Al-Saghir from the coalition said the point of the march is to bring down the regime and the institutions that the regime is built on.

He says the step after bringing down the institutions is to hand power to the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court and elect a constituent assembly within two months to draft a new constitution.

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