The Anti-Coup Alliance called Thursday for a week of pro-Morsi protests under the banner “The Generals Think It’s a Fiefdom” just days after the Presidential Election Committee announced former Defense Minister Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi won a landslide victory in Egypt’s second presidential elections in as many years.
The statement notes that “60 years of military rule in this country brought to Egyptians only desolation and destruction, poverty and widespread corruption, ‘fiefdom’ mentality and the loss of national independence,” adding that the “traitorous” commanders of the military “did not understand the message of the revolution”.
In response to Al-Sisi’s election, the Anti-Coup Alliance calls for “all patriotic men and women of Egypt” to gather in “every city, town and square” this week, especially on Sunday when Al-Sisi will be officially inaugurated as president.
The statement calls president Al-Sisi “one of the vassals of the Zionist American lobby and the West” who won “completely illegal fraudulent farce elections”.
The statement also claims that a majority of Egyptians boycotted the elections in protest, although turnout was slightly higher than the 2012 runoff between Muslim Brotherhood backed Mohamed Morsi and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.
“The people have spoken: the coup must be overthrown,” the statement concludes.
The Brotherhood as well as affiliated pro-Morsi movements such as Students Against the Coup have staged near-daily protests calling for the return of Mohamed Morsi to power. The groups, who view the 3 July ouster of Brotherhood-backed Morsi a coup, view the current government as illegitimate.
The interim authority’s crackdown on dissent following Morsi’s ouster has already left hundreds dead and as many as 41,000 in prison according to independent counts.
The Muslim Brotherhood was listed as a terrorist organisation after a spate of deadly bombings in December 2013, although militant groups in the Sinai and Cairo claimed responsibility for the attacks.
