CAIRO: Ex-presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq said on Sunday that Egypt's president and the Muslim Brotherhood, of which he is a senior leader, must relinquish power immediately to end the ongoing crisis. The Hosni Mubarak-era Prime Minister, who lost to President Mohamed Morsi in June, told London's Asharq Al-Awsat that the entire regime needs to be replaced. He argued that the number of Morsi's supporters has been greatly exaggerated and is in fact less than one million people. Shafiq described Morsi's claims that foreign agendas were behind the chaos in Egypt as “nonsense”, “irresponsible” and groundless. He argued that the downfall of the Brotherhood in Egypt will create a domino effect in the region. Political turmoil erupted when Morsi issued a constitutional decree on November 22 expanding his power and shielding his actions from judicial challenges, and escalated when an Islamist-dominated assembly finished writing a draft constitution. Opposition forces, including liberal, leftist, socialist and other parties and movements widely condemned the two moves and organized demonstrations demanding the annulment of Morsi's decree and a December 15 referendum on the draft charter. Clashes between Morsi's opponents and supporters have left at least seven dead and hundreds injured. Morsi cancelled the controversial decree on Saturday but issued another that shields itself and other constitutional declarations from court challenges. The new decree reaffirmed that the referendum on the draft constitution will take place on the scheduled date.
