Faced with growing frustration over the declaration of martial law and the lack of clarity on their long-term strategy for reforms, the Egyptian junta has told opposition leaders that they would be holding a plebiscite on constitutional amendments in about two months.
The reform of the constitution would fulfill one of the major demands of the protesters, and would also set the stage for elections and eventual civilian rule through democratic elections.
At the same time, the Egyptian military is still pushing for an end to all public protests, and insists that it will rule entirely by edict until those elections are held. There have also been reports that they intend to field a “military candidate” to continue ruling the nation as a junta going forward.
For the time being, however, British Foreign Secretary William Hague claims to have received assurances from the junta that the cabinet, the last vestiges of Mubarak’s regime, will be “reshuffled” in the next week.
That's re-assuring . Why not listen to what to Algeria, if you want to believe that.
An observation:
I find it disturbing how readily American media – especially faux news – is promoting the thought through events in Egypt that "the military" is "respected" and "a force for stability", which "represents the people", etc.
Practice perhaps for calming home-town America…just…in…case?
I was thinking the same thing…scary premonition, no?
America has been under military rule for quite some time, remember Kent State?
There are a couple of things that concern me about this article.
1. The military is coming up with its own candidate? This shouldn't be a problem if there are true elections as the people of Egypt would know better than to vote for their candidate. However, as we all know too well, stealing an election is an easy thing.
2. The cabinet will be reshuffled next week? What exactly does that mean? To me, reshuffling simply means taking the same old puppets and giving them different posts. Not good.