Morsi attempted to have the popularly elected assembly reseated but the Court remained adamant and rejected his plea.
He was able to assert, as the civilian head of the government, his authority over the military and got many of the generals that served under Mubarak to resign,(a significant development at the time).
Still the new constitution had not been written as squabbling and accusations persisted over the dominance of Muslim Brotherhood members as part of the specially formed constitutional body authorized to write the new constitution and have it before the people to accept or reject by the previously agreed upon April 2012 deadline.
So with this constitutional body in turmoil and nowhere near having a new constitution document written, Morsi pressed and demanded they have the document written and ready to be voted upon by the April deadline, (which they did). And the new Constitution was subsequently voted upon and accepted by the majority of Egyptian voters.
However Morsi's actions were seen by many of the Egyptian people as reminiscent of the authoritarian Mubarak. They also believed the new Constitution was slanted toward the Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood and the initial stage for establishing Shariah Law in the country.
Though the new Constitution was approved by the voters, a significant minority of liberals, students other more secular elements of Egyptian society plus previous supporters of Mubarak continued to resist and pointedly against Morsi himself with their perceived notion he was being authoritarian, even worse than Mubarak.
Couple the political plight Morsi faced from the beginning of his taking office along with worsening economic conditions (there before he was elected), severe unemployment, power outages, a decline in tourism (a major source of income in the country), fiscal debt in the billions, (another carryover accumulated under Mubarak and most of which Morsi had no direct control over) plus his perceived authoritarian style of operating and now with millions of Egyptians in the streets demonstrating and protesting directly against Morsi, exercising their new found voice that helped to topple Mubarak 2 - years ago, it became inevitable he would be forced from office by the military in a coups ending his presidency as well as scrapping the new Constitution.
The military has vowed it has no interest in politics and has installed Adly Mansour, Egypt's chief justice, as acting president with an "agreed on road map for the future" supposedly to include all factions in the country, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
Say what you will about Morsi, but from here in retrospect, he never had a chance to succeed. In fact it is hard to imagine anyone elected president a year ago would have established a stable Egyptian government under the same conditions Morsi faced and had to operate under.
Did Morsi make mistakes? Hell yes. Was he too forceful (authoritarian) in his approach? Probably so.
But the Egyptian people had success in getting Mubarak to step down, their chains of fear, inhibition and political lethargy replaced with a new found voice and a demand they be heard and the government responsive to them or else.
But a truly democratic representative government involves compromise and working with the opposition to resolve the problems and issues facing the country and its people. That condition doesn't yet exist in Egypt.
What does seem to exist are unrealistic expectations by millions of Egyptian people that an elected president of Egypt should be able to deliver on all the problems and issues facing the people or else be removed from office.
In the new political circumstances in Egypt can civil war be avoided between the former opposition groups massed against Morsi and Morsi supporters, Islamists and particularly the Muslim Brotherhood? Can any new president succeed in stabilizing the country, have a real representative democracy take hold and be supported by the majority of people?
Questions abound. Successful answers? As yet unknown.
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