Post date: Jun 30, 2013 6:41:59 PM
Thousands of protesters march to the presidential Palace in Cairo as they demand President Mohamed Mursi to step down.
CAIRO, EGYPT (JUNE 30, 3013) (REUTERS) - Thousands of Egyptians marched to the presidential palace in Cairo on Sunday (June 30) as they called for Islamist President Mohamed Mursi to step down.
The anti-Mursi protesters' demonstration outside the palace is not far from the site of a large protest held by Mursi's supporters.It was just one of many mass demonstrations which were held across Egypt on Sunday, two years after people power toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak and ushered in a democracy crippled by bitter divisions.
Several people have been killed in clashes between rival protesters in the week building up to the June 30 demonstration, which the opposition has billed as a decisive day that will lead to Mursi's downfall.
Mursi's opponents accuse him and the Muslim Brotherhood, which backs him, of seeking to dominate Egypt's transition to democracy at the expense of the national interest.
They are calling for him to step down and for early presidential elections to be held.
One anti-Mursi protester, Fadya, said: "I am rebelling against the situation and the president that is not fit to be a president. Egypt is big, and we've been living all our lives in greatness and with dignity because Egypt is the mother of the world. And when one comes to diminish this greatness then he is not one of us."
Liberal leaders said nearly half the voting population - 22 million people - had signed a petition calling for new elections. Mursi's supporters on the other hand say that if the opposition is unhappy with the president's performance it should try and win planned parliamentary elections.
Protester Samer el Mohandes said the anti-Mursi demonstrations would not stop until the president listened to the demands.
"If he doesn't respond to our demands we'll just have to keep pushing until he leaves just like the one before him," he said. "The one before him didn't listen to us, didn't comprehend our demands and if it reaches this extent we're just going to have to keep after him until he leaves."
U.S. President Barack Obama has called on Egyptians to focus on dialogue, and his ambassador to Egypt has angered the opposition by suggesting protests are not helping the economy.
Meanwhile Egypt's religious authorities have warned of the dangers of "civil war", with the army insisting it will not sit idly by if the country drifts into chaos.