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Egyptians rally to press military rulers, threaten to boycott elections

01 October 2011 04:07 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The iconic Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Friday saw thousands of protestors who urged the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to reconsider the electoral law and end the emergency state, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Dozens of protestors at the Tahrir Square on Friday evening attempted to march towards the headquarters of the Defense Ministry, but was stopped by heavy police presence.

Similar protests also erupted in other major cities like Alexandria on Friday. Under the name of "Reclaim the Revolution", many political forces agreed to join the rally after Friday prayers.

"We really need to reclaim the revolution spirit based on the people’s willing," said Ramy Mohamed, an activist.

The SCAF declared Tuesday a supplementary constitutional declaration for the forthcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for Nov. 28. The decree was opposed by some political groups as it allows two-thirds of seats for the parties and one third for independents.

"We can’t understand why the supreme council wants to weaken the coming parliament by such a law only promising for the old regime remnants and the powerful people exactly like the old regime," said Mohamed.

Hassan al-Sabiri, a member of Coalition of Revolution’s Youth, said that "our principles are a civilian state, social justice, no military rule, or emergency law."

"It seems the military council starts to take the revolution to another direction, contradicting the main purpose of the revolution. I think seven months are very enough to see that they do not manage the state affairs in the way the revolution requires, " he said.

"The military council should give us a timetable for the elections," he added.

Hamdi al-Hinawi, head of the National Renaissance Movement, told Xinhua that "the main point here is the economy, I’m here to call all people to launch an economic revolution to complete the political one because the economy is the base of any developed country".

"Where are our projects and plants? I talk about the industrial revolution which swept all over the world except Egypt," he added.

"Nobody on the arena is interested in the economy, nobody talk about how Egypt will be after 20 years and I think it is one of the negative impacts of the revolution," he said.

On Wednesday, some 13 political parties and movements held a meeting and decided to stage demonstration.

The activists want a timetable for the military forces to transfer power to a civilian authority, amend the parliamentary law and annul the emergency law.

The Freedom and Justice Party affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood has said it would not take part in the demonstrations although they support the demands.

"We are with all the demonstration demands, but we won’t take part in the ’Reclaim the Revolution’ demonstration as we didn’t arrange with other forces," Fareed Ismael, a leading figure in the party, told Xinhua.

The Freedom and Justice party is against the electoral law and has submitted a demand to the SCAF.

"We submitted our demand of reforming the parliamentary law to the SCAF, so there is no need for million (-people) demonstrations, " said Ismael.

Activists on the Facebook called Friday as the "Second Friday of Anger," while the SCAF warned Thursday on its Facebook page against any threats to the national security during the demonstrations.

The Egyptian cabinet on Friday studied the modification of a controversial article of the electoral law, official Nile TV channel reported.

According to Ahram Online, a major news portal in Egypt, Sami Anan, the army chief of staff and deputy head of the supreme military council, will meet with 15 leaders of political parties and groups on Saturday. It said it was likely the meeting will deal with the demands of protestors.

Saeed el-Lawendy, a researcher with the Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies, expressed his opposition to such protests.

"I agree with the necessity of amendments of the electoral law, but I wonder why Egyptians haven’t known the way to persuade the Supreme Council isn’t the million-man demonstration," he said in an exclusive with Xinhua on Friday.

"But I don’t think what happens is a beginning of conflict between the Supreme Council and political forces, as most of the political forces realize the policy of the armed forces aim to restore stability in the country. That’s why they continue to impose the emergency state, " said Lawendy.

"On the other hand, the military rulers will try to realize the demands of the political forces, such as the electoral law amendment, which is being tackled by the cabinet now, so there is a response," he added.

But other analysts worry that a possible deterioration of the relations between the military council and political forces.

"The conflict between the supreme military council and political forces has started really, and the council has to redress the situation," Mostafa Kamel, a professor of political science at Cairo University, told Xinhua.

Kamel said the most important goal of the demonstrations was to ask for a clear timetable of transferring power to a civilian government. The military rulers promised to deliver power within six months after taking power, but now it seems the time would be more than one year, the analyst said.