CAIRO ? By noon Friday, Cairo?s Tahrir Square, the symbol of Egypt?s revolution and painful 15-month transition, was packed with Egyptian protesters, promising to be one of the largest demonstrations since the 18-day revolt last year that ousted then president Hosni Mubarak and changed Egypt?s political future.
The rally was called by liberals to reject the nomination of Mubarak-era figures in the presidential race but by Friday, it had morphed into an anti-military council rally to include a cross-section of Egypt?s society with differing and competing messages.
Islamists had a similar protest last week but liberals refused to join, highlighting the deep polarization of Egypt?s political and revolutionary communities just weeks before the first presidential elections after decades of autocratic rule. Critics say the military rulers have botched the transition, either out of incompetence or intentionally to preserve their vast economic and political interests.
Now, after the Muslim Brotherhood?s top strategist and presidential hopeful Khairat el-Shater was disqualified because he was a political prisoner under Mubarak?s iron-fisted rule, the powerful organization urged its followers to go to the square. Shater said this week that Friday would be ?the real handover of power? from Egypt?s military rulers. They will demand the dissolution of the presidential electoral commission that disqualified him.
Supporters of ultraconservative preacher Hazem Abu Ismail, who was disqualified because his mother is an apparent dual national (Egyptian and American), are also rushing to the square on Friday along with the Salafist Nour Party?s supporters.
The other disqualified candidate is Mubarak?s former spy chief Omar Suleiman, who was rejected for not getting the requisite number of signatures of support. His nomination sparked wide-scale condemnation from revolutionaries, liberals, leftists and Islamists alike.
The disqualifications have brought a tentative unity among the political elite who have been battling over the nation?s future and the logistics of how to put a constitution together and accusing each other of selling out to the military rulers. Now many are accusing the military leaders of trying to control the outcome of the elections and Egypt?s future through the disqualifications and also by interfering in the appointment of the constituent assembly, which will be tasked with writing the road map for Egypt?s future.
More than 50 groups are participating in Friday?s protests, ranging from the ultraconservative Gamaa Islamiya to the revolutionary youth group April 6, who were instrumental during last year?s revolt.
But the underlying messages are different. Women planned to march to ask for more representation on a panel tasked with writing the constitution; April 6 and other youth groups, among other things, would demand that the constitution be written after the presidential elections on May 23 and 24, something the Brotherhood rejects. Ahl al Sunna wa al Jamaa, a Salafist group, is calling for the handover of power from the military to parliament.
The rally was a far cry from the unity that brought down Mubarak more than a year ago.
?Too many Stages , Too many Goals , too Many hopes and Fears,? tweeted popular Egytian blogger Zeinobia.
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=e2c5bdc0d651204314ef8bb7c5248f1c
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