Egypt petition campaign targets president

Sarah Lynch | Special for USA TODAY

CAIRO — Instead of heading to Tahrir Square, Egyptians irate with their nation's troubled state are embracing a different form of political dissent: signing petitions.

A growing movement in Egypt called the Tamarod — or rebel — campaign is collecting millions of signatures to show widespread distaste for President Mohamed Morsi and calling for early presidential elections.

"Morsi doesn't understand anything," said Shady Mohamed, a real estate agent in Cairo who signed the petition. "He doesn't understand the people or the country. ... And he just focuses on the Muslim Brotherhood, not the Egyptian people."

The petitions have no legal implications, and the campaign doesn't offer leadership alternatives.

Still, the movement could pose more challenges for the deeply distressed state as it vows to drive more unrest in Egypt.

"The campaign is probably the largest grass-roots effort that we've seen since the start of the Jan. 25, (2011) revolution," said Tarek Radwan, associate director for the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center in Washington.

"That in and of itself is significant, and to have a quantitative measure of those citizens who are against the Morsi government ... and against the Muslim Brotherhood, that directly counters the government rhetoric," he said.

In support of Morsi, Egyptian Islamists have launched a counter-campaign, the Tagarod – or "impartiality" – movement. It calls for Morsi to complete the rest of his term, and organizers claim it has more than 2 million signatures.

The political wing of former militant group Gamaa Islamiya, which established a political party after Egypt's revolution, launched the counter initiative in May. The movement's petition states that Morsi should remain in his position "as long as we do not see from him outright blasphemy" and "we have in him a sign from God," local press said.

Organizers of the rebel movement are aiming for 15 million signatures by the end of June. That's more than the 13.2 million votes Morsi received in last year's presidential election.

Signatures are gathered on the streets, in workplaces, public meeting spaces and everywhere in between, and websites are available in Arabic, English, German and French, so people can join the effort online. In early June, the group claimed it had more than 7 million signed requests for an early presidential vote.

Protesters plan to host a mass demonstration in the capital June 30, marking one year since Morsi's inauguration.

"Similarly to how you would have, in a liberal democracy, a pledge for campaign donations or actually putting your names to something as a promise to participate in a certain way, what the campaign is trying to accomplish is to have a guarantee, or numbers and obligation, from those agreeing to participate in a massive movement," said James Sunday, an academic coordinator and adjunct professor of political science at the American University in Cairo.

Small protests and strikes are rife daily across the country, often with various professionals and working-class groups voicing their unique demands or displaying frustration with Morsi. Over the past year, opposition political parties have called for large protests.

But the protest date, set weeks in advance, shows there is planning involved in this rebel campaign.

"We see a lot more forward thinking in terms of how to try to mobilize the mass numbers that they're actually calling for," Sunday said.

Petitions give voice to those who don't go to places such as Tahrir Square — the heart of the uprising in 2011 — where gatherings are divided along party lines and there is risk of violence and clashes.

Forty-six percent of Egyptians approved of Morsi after his first 10 months in office, down from 78% after his first 100 days, according to the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research (Baseera). Costs for food and fuel have increased significantly in recent months and unemployment is high. Foreign investment is still down, and tourism continues to struggle. The nation is fraught with political disarray and many fear increased use of repressive tactics.

"Since the arrival of Mohamed Mursi to power, the average citizen still has the feeling that nothing has been achieved so far from the revolution goals," the rebel petitions states. "(Mursi) gave clear proof that he is not fit for the governance of such a country as Egypt."