الرئيسية
A man flashes the V-sign for victory during the Friday
noon prayer in Cairo's Tahrihr Square. Egypt's new prime minister failed
to win over tens of thousands of demonstrators packed into Cairo's
Tahrir Square who continued to demand that the military rulers step
down.(AFP/Odd Andersen)
By Mona Salem, AFP
CAIRO (AFP) - Egyptian presidential hopeful Mohamed
ElBaradei indicated he would agree to head a new government if asked, as
Egypt's military leader scrambled to defuse a political crisis ahead of
Monday's landmark poll.
Egyptian activists on Saturday called
for a million-person march, on the eve of the first parliamentary
elections since the mass uprisings that drove Hosni Mubarak from power
in Febraury, to demand the end of military rule.
The call follows
a week of bloody clashes between protesters and police that have left
at least 42 people dead and more than 3,000 injured, and have piled
pressure on Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces led by
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
Earlier, a 19-year-old
demonstrator was killed after a protest outside the cabinet headquarters
in Cairo against military leader Tantawi's appointment of Kamal
al-Ganzuri as the country's new prime minister, following the
resignation the interim cabinet last week.
The protesters massed
in nearby Tahrir Square, the epicentre of protests that toppled Mubarak,
have repeatedly proposed ElBaradei to lead the transition to democratic
rule.
After holding talks with Tantawi, the former UN nuclear
watchdog chief said he was "ready to renounce the idea of being a
candidate in the presidential election if officially asked to form a
cabinet", according to a statement by his office.
Tantawi also held talks with ex-Arab League chief Amr Mussa, another presidential hopeful.
But
the thousands of protesters flocking to Tahrir Square over the past
week have made it clear that they will not leave until Mubarak's former
defence minister steps down.
The Revolution Youth Coalition
calling Sunday's nationwide protests is also demanding the replacement
of Ganzuri and his yet to be appointed cabinet with a national salvation
government and the immediate trial of all those involved in killing
demonstrators.
Ganzuri has tried to assure Egyptians that the
military has given him more powers than past premiers, in a bid to
placate protesters who accuse the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
(SCAF) of trying to retain control.
Despite the SCAF's insistence
that it will guarantee their security, the latest political upheaval
threatens to eclipse the upcoming elections, which many demonstators now
regard as a distraction from the pressing issues facing Egypt.
Another
factor that risks undermining Monday's ballot is the labyrinthine
voting, through which 498 candidates will be elected in the People's
Assembly, with another 10 candidates being appointed by the country's
ruler.
The prime minister-designate said he would formalise his
government "before the end of next week" and allocate some portfolios to
younger people.
But the mostly young protesters in Tahrir Square
quickly rejected the appointment of Ganzuri, who served as premier
under Mubarak in the 1990s.
"We do not want someone who has been
selected by the military council, we want a civilian who was with us in
Tahrir during the revolution, someone who has the confidence of the
people," said one, Omar Abdel Mansur.
Hundreds of demonstrators
in the square branched off to the nearby cabinet offices on Friday to
block Ganzuri from entering the building, chanting "revolution" and
"Ganzuri is a former regime leftover".
They were bolstered by an
announcement that the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's highest
authority, had thrown his weight behind them.
"The grand imam
(Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb) backs you and is praying for your victory,"
senior aide Hassan Shafie told them during a visit to the square, focus
of huge protests first against Mubarak and now the army.
ElBaradei also joined protesters in the square on Friday.
But
the Tahrir protest was countered by a rival demonstration in a square
about three kilometres (two miles) away, where more than 10,000 people
gathered to show support for the military, chanting "Down with Tahrir".
The rallies came ahead of the first parliamentary elections since Mubarak's ouster left the military in charge.
The
SCAF led by Tantawi has said repeatedly it does not have political
ambitions and plans to hand power to an elected civilian authority after
presidential elections set for no later than the end of June 2012.
But it has also insisted it will not bow to pressure from the Tahrir protesters, saying they do not represent the whole country.
Washington,
a close ally of Egypt, has called for a quick transfer to civilian
rule. And UN chief Ban Ki-moon renewed calls for the military to ensure a
"peaceful transition" after telephone talks with Tantawi.