(Photo By: Mohamed Omar)
After less than one month, the Tamarod campaign announced on Wednesday it has collected 7,540,535 signatures withdrawing confidence from Mohamed Morsi as president.
Tamarod, or “Rebellion”, is a petition campaign that was launched in late April to gather signatures disapproving of President Morsi. The campaign is also calling for early presidential elections.
The campaign held a press conference on Wednesday to announce the latest count of signatures collected. Tamarod spokesperson Mahmoud Badr stated that over a million signatures were collected in the governorates of Cairo, Daqahleya and Menufiya; 1,892,025, 1,154,056, and 1,310,906 respectively. In Morsi’s hometown of Sharqeya, Badr stated that 235,180 signatures were collected.
The results exclude the signatures collected electronically. It also excludes the signatures collected by political parties in solidarity with the campaign.
In a statement released during the press conference, the campaign said that the only remaining way to carry on with the 25 January Revolution is through getting rid of the Muslim Brotherhood regime. It added that the core of Tamarod’s disagreement with the Brotherhood regime is its stringent resemblance to that of Hosni Mubarak’s siding against democracy and supporting, instead, Brotherhood businessmen, as well as being a subordinate of the United States.
“Morsi has ruled unjustly, spoken lies, broken his promises and revoked his vows,” the statement read. “He promised us a ‘renaissance project’, only to find ourselves dragged from one failure to the next, from one crisis to another… in the midst of political losses, economic crises and threats to national security. Giving Morsi a second chance is now out of the question.”
Tamarod member Hassan Shahin said: “The legitimacy of Morsi, stemming from the ballot boxes, has elapsed with the arrival of the victims’ coffins.” He called on all people and political movements to take to the streets on 30 June, the first anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration, and sit-in until the overthrow of the regime. “This day, we will give Morsi a red card.”
The campaign also announced during the press conference the launch of a news website. Campaign member Menna Sharaf Al-Din stated that the website would be run by a group of journalists aiming to provide free reporting which breaks all taboos and does not fear any person or political party.
“We hope this website serves as the start of a bigger media project,” Sharaf Al-Din said. “We are inspired by the spirit of Abdallah Nadeem, walking in the footsteps of Mustafa Kamel.” Nadeem is an 18th century Egyptian poet who is popular for his support of the Ahmed Orabi revolution, while Kamel is a famous occupation-opponent who created Al-Liwaa newspaper in the early 20th century to highlight violations against the Egyptian people under British occupation.
Following the press conference, a small march organised by Tamarod’s Helwan team took off to Tahrir square.
The campaign is aiming to collect 15 million signatures before 30 June.
