Egypt's President Mubarak Quits Ruling Party

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has resigned as the head of the country's ruling party, according to reports.

A man protests against Hosni Mubarak in Times Square,
New York

State TV says the top leadership body of Egypt's ruling party, including the president's son Gamal Mubarak and the party secretary-general Safwat el-Sharif, resigned Saturday in a new gesture apparently aimed at convincing anti-government protesters that the regime is serious about reform.

Protesters have shrugged off other concessions by the regime in the past 12 days of unprecedented street demonstrations, saying they will settle for nothing less than the immediate ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's ruler for nearly 30 years.

State TV said the ruling party's six-member Steering Committee of the General Secretariat stepped down and was replaced. The council was the party's highest decision-making body, and el-Sharif and other outgoing members were some of the most powerful — and to many Egyptians, unpopular — political figures in the regime.

El-Sharif was replaced by Hossam Badrawi, a party figure who had been sidelined within its ranks in recent years because of his sharp criticisms of some policies.

The new appointments to the body were largely young figures, one of the replacements Mohammed Kamal told The Associated Press. "It's a good change. It reflects the mood of change that is sweeping the country," he said.

Gamal Mubarak, who was a member of the Steering Committee, was widely seen as being groomed by his father Hosni Mubarak to succeed him as president. But Vice President Omar Suleiman promised earlier in the week that Gamal would not run for president in elections due in September.

The younger Mubarak was also head of the party's powerful policies committee, where for the past decade he led a campaign of economic liberalization. State TV said Gamal was also removed from that post and replaced by Badrawi.

The announcement was greeted with scorn by some of the tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Wael Khalil, a 45-year-old activist, said it would "reinforce their (protersers') resolve and increase their confidence because it shows that they are winning, and the regime is retreating inch by inch."

Source: AP


A reported 100,000 protesters in a country of 80 million - less than 1/10th of 1 percent. Not a very strong protest. But May Be it was well enough for this kind of Protest. And the Protestors has proved that.


Some instant reactions: 


Anonymous-1:

Im just curious, does this mean that if we brits form a protest of 100000 people demanding david cameron step down as PM he would do so! or even obama?, i really dont think so. Just a few months ago we had massive unrest in london about student fees, did the PM listen to the will of the people NO.. How hypocritical! how very hypocritical

Anonymous-2:

Please please please. Can we not for once just mind our own business. I am sick of switching on the tv or radio because all I will hear is about Egypt. I personally could not care less about Africa as a whole and if Obama and Cameron think they can change the way they have lived for thousand of years they are kidding themselves. What I can see as the outcome of this shambles is thousands more immigrants pouring into this country which by the minute is getting deeper and deeper into debt.

Source: Sky News and Own Desk