Whether Mubarak’s regime will be able to stave off the will of the people indefinitely remains to be seen — and it is clear to any objective observer that the people of Egypt largely want Sharia. “Disqualified Islamist candidate: Egypt army wants to keep power,” from Reuters, April 18:
The Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate who was disqualified from Egypt’s first presidential race since Hosni Mubarak was ousted said on Wednesday his ejection was a “crime” that showed the ruling army was not serious about handing power to civilians.
“Mubarak’s regime is still ruling even if names have changed,” Khairat al-Shater, a millionaire businessman and top Brotherhood official, said a day after an election committee barred him from the race because of a criminal conviction during Mubarak’s rule when the group was banned.
The committee also disqualified a popular ultra-conservative Islamist and Mubarak’s former spy chief, Omar Suleiman.
The developments add to the turbulence of a transition to democracy that has been punctuated by spasms of violence and political rivalries between once-banned Islamists, secular-minded reformists and remnants of the Mubarak order that was overthrown in last year’s popular uprising.
Shater called for a protest on Friday in Tahrir Square, the focus of the anti-Mubarak uprising, adding to tensions ahead of the first round of the presidential vote on May 23-24.
“We are going to head to Tahrir on Friday because the revolution is being hijacked … We have to wake up because there is an attempt to hijack the revolution,” Shater told a news conference.
“The military council does not have the serious intention to transfer power,” he said….