Source: CNN
Cairo (CNN) — Egypt’s military deposed the country’s first democratically elected president Wednesday night, installing the head of the country’s highest court as an interim leader, the country’s top general announced.
Gen. Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi said the military was fulfilling its “historic responsibility” to protect the country by ousting Mohamed Morsy, the Western-educated Islamist leader elected a year ago. Morsy “did not achieve the goals of the people” and failed to meet demands to share power with opponents who thronged the streets of Cairo and Tahrir Square, El-Sisi said.
Those crowds erupted as the announcement was made on Egyptian television shortly after 9 p.m. (3 p.m. ET). Ahead of the statement, troops moved into key positions around the capital, closing off a bridge over the Nile River and surrounding a demonstration by Morsy’s supporters in a Cairo suburb.
El-Sisi said the country’s constitution has been suspended, new parliamentary elections would be held and Adly Mansour, the head of the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court, would replace Morsy.
At the final hour, Morsy offered to form an interim coalition government “that would manage the upcoming parliamentary electoral process, and the formation of an independent committee for constitutional amendments to submit to the upcoming parliament,” he said in a posting on his Facebook page. He noted that hundreds of thousands of supporters and protesters had packed plazas around the country, and he urged that his countrymen be allowed to express their opinions through the ballot box.