Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on Saturday listed the accomplishments of his first 100 days in office to a packed Cairo Stadium of mainly Muslim Brotherhood supporters bussed in for the occasion. The ceremony, held to commemorate the 39th anniversary of the 1973 war against Israel, was a show of force by the Brotherhood, on whose ticket the president ran in elections in May and June.
"We love you, Morsi!" his supporters chanted at the ceremony which was also attended by senior officials, Muslim and Christian clerics and members of the armed forces. During his electoral campaign, Morsi laid out a detailed 64-point plan to provide quick solutions to the country's chronic problems in a bid to ease the daily struggle of millions of Egyptians within 100 days in office.
The issues he listed included traffic, security, rubbish, bread and fuel. At the rally, Morsi said he had achieved 70 percent of his goals in dealing with the security problems that plagued the country after the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011. He said his projects to resolve the problems of traffic, rubbish, bread and fuel had been achieved by 60 percent, 40 percent, 80 percent and 85 percent respectively.
"We were in a phase where there was a lot of corruption. We want this corruption to stop," Morsi said. "We will uncover all corruption," he vowed. A relaxed Morsi, wearing a suit and no tie, spoke in colloquial Arabic most of the time, drawing loud cheers and applause from the crowds, some of whom wore caps and T-shirts emblazoned with the president's face.
"What I liked about his speech the most was the transparency with which he spoke," said Ragaa Hussein, a teacher who attended the rally. "He may not have achieved everything he promised, but he is on the right track," she told AFP at the stadium. "The distance between the president and the people has decreased. We are now closer to the person that leads us," said Maher Abdel Hafiz, 58, a steel worker who is also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. "We are here as Egyptians, celebrating the victory of the people," said Abdel Hafiz who had come from Badrasheen, south of Cairo.
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