Morsi rejects call for early Egyptian election

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi dismissed the calls made by the opposition to bring the presidential elections forward as "absurd" on Friday. He added that holding an election less than one year into his term would violate the constitution. Speaking was state daily newspaper Al-Ahram, Morsi called the demands “illegal” adding that breaking the law and resorting to violence is something that will not be tolerated. The President’s remarks come following a protest petition campaign was circulated nationwide to collect nationwide signatures pushing for early presidential polls. The campaign aims to gather 15 million signatures, beating the 13.2 million votes that brought Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, to victory in last June's presidential election. Morsi also expressed that the freedom of expression and a right to peaceful protest would not be denied. He further added that the Freedom and Justice party (FJP), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood is not the ruling party. The President affirmed that his government’s operational strategy on the Dam issue in Ethiopia is to communicate with Ethiopian government and its people. He insisted that while Egypt had a "keen interest" in maintaining friendly relations with African states – especially Sudan and Ethiopia – it was also keen not to risk losing a "single drop of Nile water." The president’s statements came following last week's move by the Ethiopian government to divert the waters of the Blue Nile in advance of building its planned Renaissance Dam, the prospect of which has worried Egyptian officials and politicians regarding the dam’s possible effect on Egypt’s share of Nile water. On Thursday, an Egyptian presidential aide told state news agency MENA that Egypt was planning to officially demand a halt to the Ethiopian dam project. However, an Ethiopian government spokesman told AFP Thursday that construction of the dam would go on, adding that Ethiopia had invited Morsi for talks, which would not include the option of halting the project. Morsi went on to talk about some of the problems facing ordinary Egyptians, including frequent power cuts. He attributed the latter problem not to electricity but to the lack of fuel used by power stations, for which he blamed the former regime. Answering a question about the on-going events in Turkey, the president explained that it’s an internal issue and Egypt has nothing to do with it. Morsi also expressed an interest in having good relations with the US, regardless of the differences shared between the two countries on Middle East.