Thousands have gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square in protest against
the ruling military council's handling of the transition period following the
ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak last spring.
Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna live in the famous square, says a wide
"cross-section" of the Egyptian political scene, representing more
than 20 political parties and political groups, have gathered in Cairo.
Though the protesters have separated into distinct
groups, "there is a group for the Salafi movement - the
ultraconservatives - an area for the Muslim Brotherhood, and an area for those
who see themselves as liberals" our correspondent said "the one point
of unity" among the thousands gathered in the Egyptian capital today is
that those affiliated with Mubarak and his regime not be allowed to participate
in the nation's political future.
Retuers reports that a group of Egyptian activists are
marching 125 km to Tahrir Square in Cairo in order to particiapte in a
demonstration tomorrow:
Fifteen activists decided to walk from their hometown of Suez across
the desert to Cairo to show commitment to their
cause: political reform and an end to the rule of army generals who have been
running Egypt since Hosni Mubarak was removed from power by a mass uprising
last year.
'We are showing the military council that if someone would walk this
distance for a cause, he could do anything else for
the same cause,' said Mohamed Ghareeb, a 20-year old student who was 45 km from
Cairo.
Reuters reports that SCAF has requested that the consitutional court
rule on whether top figures in Hosni Mubarak's government can run in the
upcoming presidential elections after the parliament passed a law banning them:
Last week's new law must be passed by the ruling military council to
take effect. MPs drafted the legislation in response Mubarak spy chief
Omar Suleiman's decision to run for the presidency.
Suleiman has since been disqualified on the grounds that he failed
to secure enough voter endorsements to run.
The legislation, if approved, could disqualify former prime minister
Ahmed Shafiq - in power during Mubarak's last days. The Supreme
Constitutional Court is expected to issue its ruling within 15 days. A minister
in the army-appointed government last week described the law as 'a deviation'
that targeted one or two people.
The presidential election starts on May 23 with two days of voting and
is expected to go to a June run-off between the top two candidates.
Front-runners include the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi, former member of
the Islamist group Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh and former Arab League chief and
Egypt's foreign minister for a decade, Amr Moussa.
The legislation, an amendment to the law governing political rights,
covers anyone who served in a list of top positions in government and the
ruling party during Mubarak's last decade in power. The list does not include
the position of minister, meaning it does not threaten Moussa's bid.
Activists have called for mass protests on Friday against senior
officials and politicians who served under Mubarak and the military council's
handling of the 14 months since he was removed from power by an uprising.
The generals are due to hand power to the new president by July 1
and have been governing with Mubarak's presidential powers, giving parliament
limited authority, though the chamber was elected in Egypt's most democratic
election in six decades.
The AFP reports that a visit from Egypt's Grant Mufti Ali Gomaa to
Jerusalem has upset the Muslim Brotherhood.
The powerful Muslim Brotherhood called
the trip a 'catastrophe' that undermined Palestinian aspiration.
This is a big deal, because maintaining the peace treaty with Israel
has become a very touchy subject in post-revolution Egypt.
Amr Moussa, candidate for Egypt’s presidential elections, has called
on the military council to be committed to the timetable for handing over power
by the end of June.
Moussa has warned in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera that the
prolongation of the transitional period will shake the image of Egypt in front
of the the world and will lead to many disasters and problems the transitional
period is full of.
As ten
candidates are barred from the presidential race, the remaining contenders
start their campaign.
Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna reports from Cairo.
A top Egyptian Islamic cleric paid a rare visit to Jerusalem
Wednesday, breaking with decades of opposition by Muslim leaders on traveling
to areas under Israeli control.
The Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa wrote on his Twitter account that the symbolic visit
was in solidarity with the Palestinians' claim to east Jerusalem, under
Israel's control since it was captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
He prayed in the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site, during his
two-hour visit.
Gomaa called the trip an unofficial visit, clearly an attempt to defuse
criticism he is already facing for breaking an unofficial ban by Muslim clerics
and most Egyptian professional and private associations on visiting Israel or
Israeli-controlled Palestinian territories.
The Egyptian Coptic Church, and most Muslim clerics around the region generally
uphold the ban as well.
Muslim Brotherhood's Khairat al-Shater, who has been barred from
Egypt's first post-Arab Spring presidential election, on Wednesday accused the
country's military rulers of seeking to stay in power.
"The way the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) runs Egypt...
shows manipulation in the democratisation process and a desire to prevent
people from democratically electing their president," Shater told
journalists.
He accused Egypt's military rulers of seeking "to extend the transitional
period," which is scheduled to end in June after a president is elected.
"The SCAF wants to pull the strings of power from behind the scenes,"
said Shater, a wealthy businessman and influential member of Egypt's powerful
Brotherhood.
Shater said the Islamists would join a demonstration on Friday organised by the
same movements that ousted veteran president Hosni Mubarak.
[Source: AFP]
Among the candidates still able to run are former Arab League chief
Amr Mussa and Abdelmoneim Abul Fotouh, a one-time member of the
powerful Brotherhood.
"It's a very important decision because it eliminates the
most controversial candidates," said Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyed,
professor of political science at Cairo University.
It is expected that those who would have voted for Suleiman would
support Mussa, and Islamists may back Abul Fotouh.
But with the only Salafist candidate out of the race, "there is
fear of reactions from the Abu Ismail supporters, who are not very
disciplined," said Sayyed.
Abu Ismail supporters spent the night in protest outside the
electoral commission.
The opening day of the trial of 73 men accused of involvement in an
Egyptian football stampede, which left more than 70 dead, has been marked with
chaos and had to be briefly adjourned. Dozens of defendants began shouting and
pleaded "not guilty", as the prosecutor read out charges on Tuesday
in the capital, Cairo.
NOTE :
TO SEE THE ARTICLE , GO TO THE LINK BELOW :
http://blogs.aljazeera.com/liveblog/Egypt
