Egypt's President Morsi Cancels His All-Powerful Decree

Egypt's President Morsi Cancels His All-Powerful Decree

So, it looks like Mohamed Morsi finally listened to his critics. Egypt's President has canceled his executive decree giving him power over the courts. 

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Al-Jazeera reports Selim al-Awa, an Islamist politician acting on Morsi's behalf, announced Morsi's executive decree has been cancelled at a news conference sometime around midnight local time. "The constitutional decree is annulled from this moment," al-Awa said. The move comes on the recommendation of the national dialogue meetings Morsi attended earlier Saturday, Reuters reports. The vote for the Islamist-authored constitution will ho ahead as planned, though, which has led some critics to speculate Morsi only cancelled his decree because he doesn't need it anymore: 

Morsi is smart as hell. He can nullify decree because already rammed through const. over courts.

— abuhatem (@abuhatem) December 8, 2012

It's unclear how the Egyptian people will react to this news. Earlier in the day, there were reports Morsi was considering martial law to deal with the increasingly dangerous conflicts happening on his palace steps.