CAIRO
Supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi staged morning rallies on Friday in protest at a presidential candidacy by former army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.
A pro-democracy rally set out in Al-Haram district, west of Cairo, with protesters chanting slogans against al-Sisi and the Interior Ministry – which controls Egypt's sprawling police apparatus.
Al-Sisi quit his post as Egypt's defense minister last week and unveiled his intention to run in Egypt's forthcoming presidential election in May.
Demonstrators also waved pictures of the ousted president and flashed the Rabaa sign in memory of hundreds of pro-democracy supporters killed by security forces when their protest camps were violently dispersed in Cairo in mid-August.
Similar rallies were staged in several provinces, including the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta provinces of Sharqiya and Kafr al-Sheikh.
Human chains were also organized by pro-democracy supporters in the canal cities of Ismailia and Suez.
Friday's rallies are part of week-long demonstrations called by the pro-democracy National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy against last summer's ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi by the army.
Egypt has been dogged by instability since the army unseated Morsi, the country's first freely elected president, in July following massive protests against his administration.
Pro-democracy protesters have been staging almost daily rallies ever since.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
