Police, protesters clash for 5th day in Egypt

[dipsydoodle]

Source: AP

CAIRO (AP) -- Egyptian police clashed with anti-government protesters for a fifth day in central Cairo Wednesday as a rights group raised the overall death toll from the ongoing unrest to 38.

The clashes came one day after tens of thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square rejected a promise by Egypt's military ruler to speed up a presidential election to the first half of next year. The military previously has floated late next year or early 2013 as the likely date for the vote, the last step in the process of transferring power to a civilian government after Hosni Mubarak's ouster.

In a televised address late Tuesday, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi did not set a date for handing authority to a civilian government, but instead offered a referendum on the immediate return of the armed forces to their barracks.

The Tahrir crowd, along with protesters in a string of other cities across the nation, want Tantawi to step down immediately in favor of an interim civilian council to run the nation's affairs until elections for a new parliament and president are held.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_EGYPT?SITE=INEVA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[pampango]

1. Juan Cole: Egyptian Protesters Reject Military Concessions, Demand Officers Return to Barracks

http://www.juancole.com/2011/11/egyptian-protesters-reject-military-concessions-demand-officers-return-to-barracks.html

Air Marshall Hussein Tantawi, the de facto military dictator of Egypt, attempted on Tuesday to mollify the hundreds of thousands of Egyptians demonstrating in cities up and down the Nile Valley on Tuesday. In a major concession, he agreed to move elections for a new civilian president (i.e. for his own replacement) to no later than June 2012. The earlier plan had been to delay presidential elections until late in that year.

Tantawi alleged that the Egyptian military has no desire to remain in power and would retire to its barracks as soon as the president was elected. He even said that the military would leave sooner if a referendum of the Egyptian people demanded it. He said that parliamentary elections would be held beginning November 28 despite the turmoil. He officially accepted the resignation of the interim cabinet led by Essam Sharaf, but asked it to stay on until a new government could be appointed.

The referendum suggestion is particularly dishonest. Military governments often offer to hold referendums rather than real elections. There is no real way to tell if someone has lost a referendum. What would it take for Tantawi to step down? If 52% of Egyptians said he should, he could maintain that nearly half wanted him to stay.

Despite the withdrawal of the Muslim Brotherhood from the protest movement, tens of thousands thronged to Tahrir Square on Tuesday, in massive defiance of the military and security forces that had tried to clear the square when protesters began demanding that the military give up power. Two demonstrators were killed in Cairo on Tuesday.

Aljazeera English reports: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4DUVD-erpA&feature=player_embedded