Reply #38: Egyptian official: Mubarak will yield power to military (& will make live announcement on TV)

[Turborama]

Source: CNN International

President Hosni Mubarak is expected to announce Thursday night that he is yielding power to the nation's military, a senior Egyptian government official told CNN. He said the process -- which included dialogue between the government and opposition representatives -- for implementing reforms and political transition lacked support and the government was forced to step outside the realm of "constitutional authority."

"This is not a coup in the traditional sense," the official said. "But this is a transfer of the system of government from the civilian to military. The military is stepping up, recognizing its responsibility to the Egyptian people."

"These were all definite and conclusive steps toward a political process under the constitution," the official said, referring to the effort to implement reforms. "But this political process never received enough support, either from the crowd of the international community. Now we have to go outside the constitutional frame."

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Mubarak will address the nation from the presidential headquarters in Cairo on Thursday night, state-run TV said. It will be the third time he has spoken publicly since the protests -- rowdy with revolutionary fervor Thursday -- began on January 25.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/10/egypt.protests/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1