Thousands of Islamists today rallied at Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square to ramp up pressure on Egypt's military rulers to bar officials of the former Mubarak regime, including ex-spy chief Omar Suleiman, from contesting the May presidential elections.
Thousands of Islamists today rallied at Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square to ramp up pressure on Egypt's military rulers to bar officials of the former Mubarak regime, including ex-spy chief Omar Suleiman, from contesting the May presidential elections.
The protest came a day after the Islamist-dominated parliament approved a new bill stripping senior Mubarak regime figures -- such Suleiman who was also briefly vice-president -- from contesting for office in the next 10 years.
Mubarak's last premier Ahmed Shafiq is also a candidate in next month's poll for the top job and would be disqualified if the new law is ratified.
The Muslim Brotherhood, along with radical Salafis and other Islamists shouted, "No to leftovers from the old regime!" and "We don't want Omar Suleiman!".
The protesters shouted slogans -- - "the people want to down the Marshal" -- against ruling military council chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and held banners with pictures of Suleiman and Shafiq, with their faces crossed out.
The House bill must be ratified by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has been governing the country following the popular uprising last February that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. The SCAF is given thirty days to ratify it.
If SCAF fails to ratify it, the bill will be referred to the parliament once again and will be endorsed if two thirds of the members vote in its favour.
The Islamists have accused the military of trying to sabotage its political gains by making the parliament powerless.
The Brotherhood has fielded its chief strategist, Khairat el-Shater in the May 23-24 presidential poll.
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