While admitting to mistakes on both sides during the recent temporary period, the president said: 'I bear the responsibility with you. I only took decisions for God and in the interests of the nation.'
Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi on Wednesday pledged a new era of "security and stability" after making law the new constitution backed by his Islamist allies. In a televised address to the nation, Mursi congratulated Egyptians for endorsing the constitution through a national referendum, but admitted the country had gone through "disquieting" weeks of unrest.
Admitting having taken "difficult" decisions in the lead-up to the adoption of the document, Mursi insisted they were necessary to establish "a new era...with more security and stability". He also admitted to mistakes on both sides during this temporary period. "I bear the responsibility with you. I only took decisions for God and in the interests of the nation," the president said.
While he acknowledged the "respectable" proportion that voted against the text, he rejected opposition charges of fraud and urged his opponents to engage in a national dialogue to resolve lingering tensions, while adding that he would shuffle his government to tackle economic problems.
More than 60% voters backed the constitution in a referendum, the government said, although only a third of Egypt's 52million-strong electorate voted. The constitution grants the Islamist-dominated Shura Council, the upper house of the Egyptian parliament, temporary powers to legislate and lay the groundwork for elections to be held within two months. The liberal opposition says it betrays Egypt's 2011 revolution by dangerously mixing religion and politics.
Mohammed Mahsoub, the Egyptian cabinet minister in charge of parliamentary affairs, said: "I congratulate the Egyptian people on behalf of the government for the passing of the constitution, which establishes a modern democratic state where the people's voices are heard and where injustice, dictatorship, repression, nepotism and corruption take a back seat."
But Mursi's opponents—mostly secularists, liberals and Leftists - have rejected the new charter, which they see as a tool by the Muslim Brotherhood and its Salafist allies to introduce strict Islamic law on the country. The effect, they fear, could give undue influence to clerics in lawmaking, and leave minority groups without adequate legal protection.
The US, which gives $1.3billion a year to Egypt's influential military, has called on Mursi to work to "bridge divisions" with the largely secular opposition.
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