The president's call for a vote on draft constitution is welcomed by supporters and rejected by opponents of president Morsi's recent decision to shield the Constituent Assembly and override judges Early reactions to president Mohamed Morsi's announcement that the people would vote on 15 December in a referendum on the draft constitution that was preseneted to him by the Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly on Saturday night have been mixed. Thousands of the president's supporters who have been demonstrating near Cairo University all day Saturday celebrated the president's move with chants of Allah Akbar (God is great), fireworks and nationalist songs. "The people will be the source of all powers for the first time ever," Khaled Mohamed, a Morsi supporter, told Ahram Arabic news website. Mohamed called on revolutionaries in Tahrir to respect the will of the people. "The people will be very happy after we have a constitution. We have been waiting for this since the onset of the January revolution," Samir El-Sharkawy said. Meanwhile, the Judge's Club which vehemently opposes the president's recent constitutional declarration which gave him powers above the judiciary, including the right to shield the assembly from dissolution verdicts, have called for an emergency meeting to discuss their response. Liberal politician Mustafa El-Naggar, a member of Adl Party and a former MP, said in a tweet that the president's decision to call for a referendum before consensus could be reached between non-Islamist and Islamist forces ended all changes for compromises to be reached. Anti-Morsi forces have threatened to march on the presidential palace in Heliopolis if constitutional declaration was not withdrawn, and many judges, who are on strike against the decree, have threatened not to monitor the referendum.
