CAIRO: Four Egyptian ministers have quitted the cabinet of President Muhammad Morsi following the massive protests in the country, a top government official says.
The ministers of tourism, environment, communication and legal affairs have tendered their letters of resignation to Prime Minister Hisham Qandil, the senior Egyptian official told a foreign agency on Monday.
The resignations come a day after the capital Cairo and other Egyptian cities witnessed major demonstrations for and against Morsi on Sunday. Some 16 people died and hundreds more were wounded in the unrest.
Tourism Minister Hisham Zazou had already sought to step down in June after Morsi appointed Adel al-Khayat as governor of the city of Luxor. However, Zazou came back to work last week after Khayat quit.
The massive protests on Sunday came on the first anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration as president following the 2011 revolution that toppled the Western-backed regime of Hosni Mubarak.
The demonstrators are angry at Morsi’s handling of the economy and failure to fulfill his electoral promises. The organizers of the major demonstration for Sunday claim that more than 22 million people have signed petition for the resignation of the president and a snap election.
Anti-government protests were also staged in the coastal city of Alexandria, the Nile Delta cities of Mansura, Menuf, Tanta and Mahalla, the canal cities of Suez and Port Said as well as Zagazig.
Meanwhile earlier on Monday, the opposition set July 2 as a deadline for Morsi to step down.
