The following were the top 20 news events Egypt witnessed in 2012 as selected by Amwal Al Ghad (in chronological order):

1- Egypt’s Islamists Win 75% of Parliament Seats:  

On January 21st, Final results showed that Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament in Egypt’s first elections since the ouster of authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak.

In the vote for the lower house of parliament, a coalition led by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood won 47 percent, or 235 seats in the 498-seat parliament. The ultraconservative Al-Nour Party was second with 25 percent, or 125 seats.

Dr. Mohamed Saad El-Katatni was overwhelmingly elected as the new parliamentary speaker.

The Islamist domination of Egypt’s parliament has worried liberals and even some conservatives about the religious tone of the new legislature, which will be tasked with forming a committee to write a new constitution. It remains unclear whether the constitution will be written while the generals who took power after Mubarak’s fall are still in charge, or rather after presidential elections this summer.

The Salafi Al-Nour, which was initially the biggest surprise of the vote, wants to impose strict Islamic law in Egypt, while the more moderate Brotherhood, the country’s best-known and organized party, has said publicly that it does not seek to force its views about an appropriate Islamic lifestyle on Egyptians.

Muslim Brotherhood lawmaker Mohammed El-Beltagi said the new parliament represents “the wish of the Egyptian people.”

2- Port Said Stadium Massacre; Black Day

On February 1st, at least 74 people have been killed in clashes between rival fans following a football match in the Egyptian city of Port Said.

Scores were injured as fans – reportedly armed with knives – invaded the pitch after a match between top-tier clubs al-Masry and al-Ahly to become the worst and most dreadful disaster in the country’s football history.

Officials say most of the deaths were caused by concussions, deep cuts to the heads and suffocation from the stampede.

“This is not football. This is a war and people are dying in front of us,” al-Ahly player Mohamed Abo Treika said.

The country has announced then a three-day national mourning.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood – which has emerged as Egypt’s biggest party in recent elections – blamed supporters of ousted President Hosni Mubarak for the violence.

“The events in Port Said are planned and are a message from the remnants of the former regime,” Muslim Brotherhood lawmaker Essam al-Erian said.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter issued a statement, expressing his shock over the incident.

“This is a black day for football. Such a catastrophic situation is unimaginable and should not happen,” he said.

3- Calls For Civil Disobedience… Egypt Revolutionaries List 6 Demands

On February 11th on the anniversary of Mubarak’s ouster, several revolutionary forces have called for a general strike as a preparatory footstep to civil disobedience aimed at forcing an immediate handover of power to a civil administration, rather than wait for planned presidential elections later this year. Many of those calling for the strike say little has changed since Mubarak’s ouster, and that the regime has not yet fallen.

The six additional demands were: First, immediate dismantlement of the incumbent interim government, led by SCAF-appointed premier Kamal El-Ganzouri, and the appointment of a bona fide government of national salvation members of which shall be selected by the People’s Assembly. Second, the immediate holding of presidential elections. Third, the formation of an investigative committee mandated with the judicial and executive authority to investigate all crimes and massacres committed by the ruling authorities since 25 January 2011. Fourth, the establishment of “revolutionary tribunals” to try all former regime figures found guilty of involvement in crimes committed after the January uprising. Fifth, the immediate dismissal of Egypt’s prosecutor general. Sixth, the purge and overhaul of Egypt’s Ministry of Interior, especially the National Security apparatus, which continues to be seen largely as a continuation of the notorious, now-defunct State Security apparatus.

4- U.S.-Egypt Lurch Into Risky Limbo on NGO Case

On March 1st, U.S. hoped for a quick end to its dispute with Egypt over pro-democracy groups have been put on hold, stranding both countries in a dangerous limbo as pressures build on a security partnership that is vital to Washington.

The Obama administration had hoped the row over Egypt’s raids on U.S.-funded groups and its travel bans on a handful of U.S. citizens would conclude this month with a face-saving deal that would release the Americans and put Washington’s ties with Cairo back on track.

But an Egyptian court decided to adjourn the case until late April opened a risky new chapter in the dispute – leaving the door open to a solution, but also sharply raising the danger of permanent political damage on both sides.

In Cairo, the judge in the case announced he was resigning, adding a fresh twist to a tale that has unfolded in unexpected directions since Egyptian police first raided the pro-democracy groups in December.

U.S. officials have made clear that the $1.3 billion in annual military aid to Egypt has been put at risk by the case, in which 43 foreign and Egyptian non-governmental organization workers have been accused of receiving illegal foreign funds. They are also alleged to have carried out political activities unrelated to their work and failing to obtain necessary operating licenses.

If the case drags on, it could cause longer-term damage in U.S. relations with Egypt, which has been a pillar of Washington’s alliances in the Arab world and, along with Jordan, is the only Arab country to have a peace treaty with Israel.

Supporters of the NGOs and some political analysts took heart from the adjournment of the case, pointing out that the court could have taken more aggressive action such as formally ordering the arrest of the accused.

The NGO case has involved groups with blue chip U.S. political connections.

The NGOs say they have long sought to register in Egypt, and describe the crackdown as part of a wave of repression against civil society activists by the generals who took power in Egypt after President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year.

5- Egypt’s Coptic Pope, Shenouda III, Dies At 88

On Saturday March 17th, Pope Shenouda III – the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church who led Egypt’s Christian minority for 40 years during a time of increasing tensions with Muslims – died. He was 88.

The state news agency MENA said Shenouda died Saturday after battling liver and lung problems for several years, and a doctor who treated him several years ago said he suffered from prostate cancer that had spread to his lungs. He died at his residence in the main Coptic Cathedral in Cairo, several figures close to the pope said.

Tens of thousands of Christians packed into cathedral to mourn Saturday evening. Women in black wept and screamed. Some, unable to get into the overcrowded building, massed outside, raising their hands in prayer. “The Coptic Church prays to God that he rest in peace between the arms of saints,” a scroll read on a Coptic TV station, CTV, under a picture of the patriarch.

For Egypt’s estimated 10 million Coptic Christians, he was a charismatic leader, known for his sense of humor — his smiling portrait was hung in many Coptic homes and shops — and a deeply conservative religious thinker who resisted calls by liberals for reform.

Many Copts saw him as the guardian of their community living amid a Muslim majority in this country of more than 80 million people.

6- Egypt-KSA Lurch Into Risky Limbo On El-Gizawi’s Detention

On March 28th, Egyptian rights lawyer Ahmed el-Gezawi was arrested in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia upon arrival in the Saudi port of Jeddah for allegedly insulting the kingdom’s monarch.

El-Gezawi’s sister, Sheren, said he had been previously convicted in absentia and sentenced to a year in prison and 20 lashes by a Saudi court for insulting the king. El-Gezawi had filed a lawsuit in Egypt against Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah over the alleged arbitrary detention of hundreds of Egyptians living in the kingdom.

Hundreds of Egyptians protested outside the Saudi Embassy on April 24th to demand the release of the Egyptian lawyer, prompting Riyadh to close its embassy there in a sign of its deepening anxiety about the future direction of a formerly close ally after last year’s revolution. The ambassador returned to Cairo a week later after high-level Egyptian delegations visited Riyadh to assure the Saudi authorities they were committed to the relationship.

El-Gezawi flew to Jeddah on his way to perform a minor pilgrimage, called umrah, in the Saudi cities of Mecca and Madina.

Afterwards, Saudi Arabia stated that Gezawi was charged with smuggling around 21,000 pills of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax into Saudi Arabia. His former lawyer — who quit the case because Gezawi failed to pay legal fees — has said the public prosecution is seeking the death penalty. El-Gezawi denied all the charges against him of drug possession and smuggling. The case was adjourned to January 2nd, 2013.

7- Curfew Imposed Amid Bloody Clashes in Abbasiya

On May 5th, The Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) issued a curfew in the Abbasiya area between Friday 11pm and Saturday 7am, after clashes between protesters and military police which saw 373 injured outside of the Ministry of Defense in the eastern Cairo district.

The ruling military council said groups attacked the army outside of their headquarters earlier that afternoon.

SCAF Major General Mukhtar El-Mulla began his speech on State TV by reiterating SCAF’s warning made during a Thursday press conference, in which spokesmen cautioned the public against protesting at any military facility, in particular the army headquarters.

El-Mulla said that “irresponsible elements tried on Friday afternoon to bypass the security barricades around Ministry of Defense” and proceeded to “attack army personnel guarding the ministry with rocks and molotov cocktails.”  In response, El-Mulla added, “the army was forced to push these elements back.”

Protestors were demonstrating against the military rule demanding the SCAF’s immediate handover. After dispersing the protestors, the army imposed an overnight curfew around the ministry building.

Meanwhile, the military prosecution started to interrogate over 170 who were detained for suspected involvement in the bloody clashes that took place in Abbasiya.

8- Ousted Mubarak On Trial, Receives Life Term

On June 2nd, An Egyptian court has sentenced former president Hosni Mubarak to life in prison after convicting him of involvement in the murder of protesters during the uprising that toppled him last year.

Also given a life term on Saturday was Mubarak’s former interior minister Habib el-Adly, while six former police commanders were acquitted.

Meanwhile, corruption charges against Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, were dropped.

Mubarak, the first Arab leader to be tried by his own people since the wave of uprising began in Tunisia in late 2010, was found guilty for permitting the killing at least 800 protesters during the 18-day revolt that overthrew him on February 11, 2011.

The 84-year-old Mubarak was then ferried in a helicopter away from the police academy that was used as the courtroom in Cairo.

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Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros, reporting from outside the court, said that the decisions left the situation regarding Mubarak’s actual culpability somewhat unclear.

“A lot of people are now talking about how easy it will be to appeal these life sentences, because at the end of the day, it looks more like a political decision than one based on legal merit.

“The fact that you had these senior aides [from the interior ministry] that were on trial acquitted, means that the actual link of giving those orders to kill the protesters to the police officers, that actually was not found”

The charges against Gamal and Alaa Mubarak were dropped with the judge saying “the case had lapsed” because the alleged crime took place over 10 years ago.

Alaa and Gamal, who were being tried alongside their father for corruption, were facing sentences of up to three years in prison, according to Human Rights Watch.

9- Egypt’s First Post-Uprising Parliament Resolved

On June 14th, Egypt’s highest court on Thursday dissolved the Islamist-dominated parliament and ruled that the army-backed candidate could stay in the race, in what was widely seen as a double blow for the Muslim Brotherhood.

The decision was denounced as a coup by opposition leaders of all kinds and many within the Brotherhood, who fear that they will lose much of the political ground they have gained since Hosni Mubarak was ousted 16 months ago.

The decision by the supreme constitutional court – whose judges were appointed by Mubarak – brought into sharp focus the power struggle between the Muslim Brotherhood and the supreme council of the armed forces (SCAF), the military council that took up the reins of power after Mubarak’s fall.

The Brotherhood has now lost its power base in parliament, at the same time as seeing the military-backed candidate, Ahmad Shafik, the last president to serve under Mubarak, receive a boost.

Supporters of the Brotherhood, liberals and leftwing activists were united in their outrage at what they saw as a carefully engineered move by SCAF to keep a hold on power. It was denounced by senior Brotherhood MP Mohamed el-Beltagy as a “fully fledged coup”.

Dr Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a centrist former presidential candidate, echoed that sentiment. “Keeping the military candidate [in the race] and overturning the elected parliament after granting the military police the right to arrest is a complete coup and whoever thinks that millions of youth will let it pass is deluding themselves,” he said in a statement on his Facebook page.

10- Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi Named First Civil Islamist President Of Egypt

On June 24th, Egypt’s military rulers officially recognized Dr. Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood as the winner of Egypt’s first competitive presidential election, handing the Islamists both a symbolic triumph and a potent weapon in their struggle for power against the country’s top generals.

Mr. Morsi, 60, an American-trained engineer and former lawmaker, is the first Islamist elected as head of an Arab state. He becomes Egypt’s fifth president and the first from outside the military. But his victory, 16 months after the military took over on the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, is an ambiguous milestone in Egypt’s promised transition to democracy.

11- Unidentified Gunmen Attack Military Forces In Sinai

On August 5th, Islamist gunmen killed at least 15 Egyptian policemen and seized an army tank in an assault on a Sinai police station near the border with Israel on Sunday, the deadliest attack in the region in at least two decades.

The attack, which saw Israeli aircraft destroy a vehicle used by the gunmen to try to storm the fortified border, was the first major security emergency for Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who summoned his military council.

Egyptian state television and Israeli military officials said an Islamist militant group was responsible for the assault.

Israel has previously accused Palestinian militants in Gaza of involvement in militant activity in Sinai, where insecurity has spread since the U.S.-aligned Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, was toppled by a citizen revolt last year.

12- Operation Eagle Launched, Seeks Terror-Free Sinai

On August 7th, Egyptian military sources revealed that “Operation Eagle” which was originally aimed at securing vital establishments in the Sinai Peninsula, has been developed early on the day into combat engagements with militants that will not stop until “all terrorist and criminal activity is quashed.”

The sources, who spoke to Ahram Online on condition of anonymity, stressed that the Egyptian army has been using diverse weaponry – including aircraft and heavy artillery – to accomplish the mission.

“The highest-ranking leaders of the country’s security apparatuses have formed a committee to run and supervise the operation,” one of the sources added.

In a televised statement on August 8th afternoon, the Egyptian armed forces called on residents and Bedouin tribes in Sinai to help security troops restore order and fulfill their task.

Tensions in Egypt’s North Sinai had reached new heights in the early hours of Wednesday as Egyptian security forces engaged in battles with militants across several areas of the governorate, shortly after assailants opened fire on five joint military-police checkpoints.

Exchanges of fire continued until armored vehicles were sent in to contain the situation and many of the gunmen were either killed or injured, eyewitnesses told Al-Ahram’s Arabic Language news website after the raids.

Military jets were also allegedly seen pounding several spots in the nearby town of Sheikh Zuweid as reports came in that Egyptian security troops and helicopters were combing the eastern area of El-Halal Mountain, hunting down the armed insurgents.

13- President Morsi Issues Constitutional Decrees, Sacks SCAF

On August 12th, President Morsi made a bundle of sweeping decisions announced by the presidential spokesperson in a televised statement.

Firstly, Morsi cancelled the 17 June constitutional addendum, which was issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), and amended the SCAF-issued 30 March 2011 Constitutional Declaration.

The new Constitutional Declaration grants the elected president all the powers detailed in Article 56 of the 30 March 2011 Constitutional Declaration.

The powers Morsi enjoys as per this declaration include full executive and legislative authority, as well as the power to set all public policies in Egypt and sign international treaties.

The declaration also gives Morsi the right to form a new Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting a new Egyptian constitution should any future developments prevent the current assembly from carrying out its responsibilities.

Secondly, Morsi issued a decision to retire Hussein Tantawi, the minister of defense and the general commander of the Armed Forces.

Morsi also retired Sami Anan, the Army’s Chief of Staff.

Morsi also decided to award both men state medals and appoint them as advisors to the president.

Thirdly, the president appointed the head of the military intelligence, Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, as Minister of Defense to replace Tantawi.

Sedky Sobhy, the commander of the Third Army, was appointed as Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces.

Morsi also retired the Commander of the Navy, Mohab Memish, and appointed him as head of the Suez Canal Authority.

Reda Hafez, the commander of the Air Force, was also retired and appointed as minister of Military Production.

Mohamed El-Assar, the SCAF member in charge of armaments, was appointed as assistant to the Minister of Defense.

Fourth, Morsi appointed Mahmoud Mekki, the deputy head of the Cassation Court, as his Vice President.

Immediately following the announcement of their appointments, Mahmoud Mekki, Egypt’s new vice president, and Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, the new minister of defense, were both sworn into office before President Morsi shortly after 5pm on Sunday afternoon.

14- Egypt clashes rage over anti-Islam film as president tries to restore calm

On September 13th, Demonstrators had clambered into the U.S. mission in Cairo, tore down the flag and burnt it on Tuesday. In Libya, gunmen attacked the U.S. consulate, killing the U.S. ambassador and three other diplomats.

“Expressing opinion, freedom to protest and announcing positions is guaranteed but without assaulting private or public property, diplomatic missions or embassies,” President Mohamed Morsi said in a televised statement. He pledged to protect foreigners and condemned the killing of the U.S. envoy in Libya.

At least 20 people have been injured in the renewed clashes between Egyptian protesters and security forces near the U.S. embassy in central Cairo on Thursday, Al Arabiya correspondent reported.

Initial reports also said that several protesters were injured, most of whom suffered the effects of tear gas. An official injury toll has yet to be revealed. 

Live television showed hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the embassy, where late on Tuesday around 2,000 protested outside after some illegally entered the compound, ripped down the flag and burned it.

State news agency MENA said earlier Egypt had arrested four people after Tuesday’s demonstration in which protesters blamed the film on the United States.

It said the four people were transferred to the prosecutor’s office, adding that security forces were still searching for others who scaled the walls of the U.S. mission.

On September 12th, President Barack Obama said Egypt was neither an ally nor an enemy of the United States.

“I don’t think that we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy,” Obama said in excerpts of an interview with Telemundo aired by MSNBC.

“I think that we are going to have to see how they respond to this incident,” Obama said.

“Certainly in this situation, what we’re going to expect is that they are responsive to our insistence that our embassy is protected, our personnel is protected,” Obama said.

“And if they take actions that indicate they’re not taking those responsibilities, as all other countries do where we have embassies, I think that’s going to be a real big problem.”

15- Egypt In Talks With IMF Over $4.8 Bln Loan

On September 18th, the International Monetary Fund said it is ready to send a technical team to Egypt, which has requested a $4.8 billion loan, “as soon as the Egyptians have themselves gone through the internal process,” Ahmed said. “For us, it’s very important that any program that we support is one that is fully developed and owned by the authorities themselves, and that process is ongoing.”

Egypt is seeking IMF loan as its economies struggle to recover from popular uprisings last year that ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Egypt’s foreign-currency reserves have plunged by more than half .

16- Bishop Tawadros Named Egypt’s New Coptic Pope

On November 4^th,  Bishop Tawadros has been selected to succeed Pope Shenouda III as patriarch of Egypt’s 118thCoptic Christian Church Pope. This was after the blindfolded chosen child Mosad Bishoi had picked one of the papers in  which three papal finalists were written.

The altar lottery to choose Egypt’s 118th Coptic Pope began Sunday morning at the Abbasiya Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo.

The acting pope Bishop Pachomios started the proceedings by announcing the three papal finalists: Bishop Rafael, Father Rafael Ava Mina and Bishop Tawadros, whose names were written on large sheets of paper in bold letters.

Each paper was then tied with red ribbon and marked with the acting pope’s stamp as well as late Pope Shenouda III’s stamp and dropped in a transparent box, which was sealed with red wax.

17- Assiut Bus-Train Collision Crisis

On November 17th Saturday morning, about 51 young children were killed when a train collided with their bus on a railway crossing in Manfalut, 356 kilometres (220 miles) south of Cairo.

Egypt’s Transport Minister Rashad El-Metini has been called for interrogation by the public prosecution, and banned from leaving the country after announcing his resignation following the deaths of 50 school children in a fatal bus accident in Upper Egypt on Saturday.

El-Matini, who potentially faces charges of negligence, was the second official to resign, Railway Authority head Mostafa Qenawi also stepped down following the incident.

A bus carrying 60 kindergarten children, aged between four and six years old, was reportedly hit by a train as it drove over a railway crossing in the Assiut village of Manfalout, Saturday morning.

There are conflicting reports of how the collision happened. The Railway Authority earlier claimed that the bus driver drove the school bus over the tracks despite the fact that the warning lights and sirens were sounding.  

A Human Rights report issued the same day by the New World for Development and Human Rights Foundation, who were among the first to arrive to the scene,  stated that the death toll of children had risen from 47 to 50 with another 13 in a critical condition.

Hundreds of family members gathered at the scene to identify their lost loved ones, however according to the report only 43 of the child victims have been named, six bodies remain unidentified.

In addition, Egypt’s Interior Ministry earlier stated that both the bus driver and  his assistant were among the dead.

The report described a blood-spattered railway track, as body parts of slain children remain trapped under the train. Families of those killed, who blocked the track and neighboring road, reportedly refused to remove the bodies before an investigative committee examined the evidence.

“The accident scene was horrific. You could see children uniforms and school books scattered around with blood stains on them,” Ahmed Abdel-Karim, an activist at the scene told Ahram Online.

The fatal crash could be attributed to negligence, Abdel-Karim continued, as the 60 children were crammed into the mini-bus that was built to accommodate only 30 people.

18- President Morsi Issues Controversial Decrees, Grants Himself Absolute Powers

On November 22^nd, President Mohammed Morsi has released a constitutional declaration granting himself — most controversially — the powers to issue any decision or law without any alternative authority in the country having the power to oppose or revoke it. The president has also granted himself the right to use all “necessary procedures and measures” needed to confront — prepare for a very vague statement — a “danger threatening the Jan. 25 revolution, the life of the nation, national unity, safety of the nation, or hurdling the state institutions in performing their roles” — which appears to indicate a wide range standby emergency powers at the hands of the presidency.

Morsi has also stipulated that no authority can dissolve the existing Shura Council (the remaining Upper House of Parliament, as the lower house has already been dissolved by court order over the constitutionality of the electoral law) or the Constituent Assembly tasked with writing the constitution. In doing so, he has preempted the judiciary that was due to issue verdicts on the cases for the dissolution of both assemblies, with both likely verdicts being dissolution. This decision was even criticised by recently-resigned former constituent assembly members, such as former Arab League chief and presidential candidate Amr Moussa as well as the head of the April 6 youth movement, Ahmed Maher, people who have believed in giving this assembly a veritable chance and were not opposed to it in principle as other opposition forces have been.

The president has also extended the work of the constituent assembly by another two months, in light of the assembly crisis following the walkout of nearly one quarter of its members (primarily: the liberal block, the church, the journalists and farmers syndicates, and the assembly’s advisory council) over the increased domination of the Islamist majority of the assembly and the consequentially increasing debate deadlock.

In doing so, and in addition to preempting the judiciary, the president has ignored the continued calls for a genuine reform of the political representation imbalance within the assembly. He could have used the looming official deadline for the assembly to complete its work as an acceptable and perfectly valid political excuse for a creating a reformed assembly, which would have relatively saved face for everyone involved.

To make this all more palatable, the president issued expansions of the pensions for injured revolutionary protesters and widened the net of recipients. He controversially amended judicial laws and removed the sitting prosecutor-general (a popular demand for the revolutionary community, though) who was accused of compromising fair trials and investigations of former Mubarak regime as well as security personnel potentially involved in protester murders.

He also officially ordered a repeat of revolution-related trials, and the newly-appointed prosecutor general – a figure hailing from Egypt’s judicial independence movement – has promptly ordered the retrial of Mubarak and his interior minister El-Adly in a tour-de-force to rally some political support around him and the decisions. But even his promise of retrials seems focused in wording on events before Feb. 11, 2011, with nothing clear about the many protester deaths and injuries after that.

19- Ithadiya Mass Rally Crisis

On late Wednesday December 5^th, Supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi battled in the Heliopolis Palace (Ithadiya Palace), the residences for the executive office of the President of Egypt, with rocks and firebombs, as three key presidential advisors quit to protest the president’s handling of the country’s constitutional crisis.
clashes continued late Wednesday, there were reports of Muslim Brotherhood supporters attacking journalists outside the presidential palace. Separately, three more presidential advisors announced their resignations to protest the decrees granting Mr. Morsi expanded powers. Five of the president’s 17 advisors have quit since November 22.
Opposition protesters want Morsi to abolish a decree he issued last month granting himself sweeping powers that place him above review by the judiciary. Many also oppose a new draft constitution drawn up by a mainly Islamist committee. The draft is set for a December 15 referendum.

At least seven were killed and hundreds injured when thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members confronted anti-Morsi protesters in front of the presidential palace in Cairo last Wednesday, sending shockwaves across the country.

The president’s Nov. 22 decrees and the adoption by his allies of a controversial draft constitution have plunged Egypt into its worst political crisis since president Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow nearly two years ago.

 20- President Morsi Ratifies Egypt’s First Post-Uprising Constitution 

On December 25^th, Egypt announced voters had approved overwhelmingly a constitution drafted by President Mohamed Morsi’s Islamist allies, and the government imposed currency restrictions to cope with an economic crisis worsened by weeks of unrest.

Final figures from the elections commission showed the constitution was adopted with 63.8 percent of the vote, giving Islamists their third straight victory at the polls since Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a 2011 revolution.

Morsi’s Leftist, liberal, secularist and Christian opponents had taken to the streets to block what they argued was a move to ram through a charter that would dangerously mix politics and religion.

The president argues that the new constitution offers sufficient protection for minorities, and adopting it quickly is necessary to end two years of turmoil and political uncertainty that has wrecked the economy.

Hours before the vote result was announced, the authorities imposed a new ban on traveling in or out of the country with more than $10,000 in foreign currency, a move apparently intended to halt capital flight.

Some Egyptians have begun withdrawing their savings from banks in fear of tougher restrictions.

The “yes” vote paves the way for a parliamentary election in about two months, setting the stage for yet another electoral battle between surging Islamists and their fractious liberal and leftist opponents.

The final result, announced by the election commission, matched – to the last decimal place – an earlier unofficial tally announced by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.

The constitution was drawn up by a body largely made up of Morsi’s Islamist allies. The results announcement was a disappointment for the opposition which had put pressure on the authorities to recount the result to reflect what they have described as major vote violations.

“We have seriously investigated all the complaints,” judge Samir Abu el-Matti of the Supreme Election Committee told a news conference. The final official turnout was 32.9 percent.

Cairo, gripped by often violent protests in the run-up to the vote, appeared calm after the announcement and opposition groups have announced no plans for demonstrations to mark the result.

“The results were so odd and no change in the percentage points shows that nothing was done to take our complaints into account,” Khaled Dawood, an opposition spokesman, said.

The referendum, held on December 15 and on December 22, has sown deep divisions in the Arab world’s most populous nation but Morsi says enacting the new constitution quickly will bring stability and a chance to focus on fixing the economy.

A growing sense of crisis has gripped Egypt’s polarized society for weeks. Standard and Poor’s cut Egypt’s long-term credit rating on Monday.

Hours ahead of the results announcement, Prime Minister Hisham Kandil told the nation of 83 million the government was committed to taking steps to heal the economy.

“The main goals that the government is working towards now is plugging the budget deficit, and working on increasing growth to boost employment rates, curb inflation, and increase the competitiveness of Egyptian exports,” he said.