A man walks over a graffiti reading “Morsi Go” on November 25 in the landmark Tahrir square in Cairo/AFP
The crisis talks, on the eve of rival rallies which threaten to deepen the country’s divisions, come a day after a member of his party was killed in clashes outside its offices in the Nile Delta town of Damanhour.
Several offices belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) have been torched since Morsi’s announcement on Thursday of his enhanced powers.
The constitutional declaration which allows him to issue decisions and laws unchallenged on a temporary basis has triggered a wave of protests across the country, and set him on course for a showdown with Egypt’s judges.
Courts in some provinces have suspended work in protest while the journalists’ union has decided in principle to go on strike and a sit-in by opponents of Morsi is being held in the iconic Tahrir Square at the heart of last’s year revolution.
Small groups of protesters spent Sunday night in the square, where they have erected 30 tents since Friday. “Muslim Brotherhood, keep out,” reads a banner strung up nearby.
The constitutional declaration states that Morsi can issue “any decision or measure to protect the revolution,” which are final and not subject to appeal, sparking charges that he is taking on dictatorial powers.
In a move to assuage his critics, Morsi was to meet the Supreme Judicial Council late in the afternoon after his Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki held preliminary talks with the council, the president’s spokesman Yasser Ali said.
Ahead of the crisis talks, key opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei ruled out any compromise with “a president who is imposing a dictatorship,” but Mekki said that curbs on the widened presidential powers could be discussed with the judges.
An amendment could be added to specify that “the irrevocable decisions of the president apply only to issues related to his sovereign powers and not administrative decisions,” the minister said, quoted by state news agency MENA.
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