Egypt military pledges faster power transfer

[FarCenter]

Egypt's ruling generals have said they are prepared to hold a referendum on immediately transferring power to civilian authority if people demand it.

In a televised address to the nation on Tuesday, Field Marshal Muhammed Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), said the body is committed to holding parliamentary elections as scheduled, with the first round to begin on November 28, and to elect a president before July 2012.

"We ask for fair elections. We are doing our job in a very special era," he said. “We do not care who runs for elections and who is elected president and yet we are accused of being biased,”

Tantawi also announced that he had accepted the resignation of the interim prime minister, Essam Sharaf.

As Tantawi finished his speech, a crowd reaching as many as 100,000 in Cairo's central Tahrir Square signalled their disapproval by chanting "Irhal!" or "Leave!".

Reminiscent of the popular uprising against Hosni Mubarak's rule in February, the crowds in Tahrir Square shouted "the people want the fall of the field marshal," instead of "The people want the fall of the regime".

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/11/20111122173917310139.html

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Egypt has had its Bastile Day. However, it has not yet had its Robespierre and Reign of Terror.

In revolutions, it takes a while for one of the factions to emerge in a disciplined way and to liquidate its adversaries.