Tens of thousands of Egyptians have converged on Cairo’s Tahrir Square—the site last January’s mass protests that ultimately ousted ex-President Hosni Mubarak—to mark the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the protests.
Some protesters are calling for further political reforms in the country, which has been governed by the military since Mubarak was ousted, according to Al-Arabiya television. Some protesters are celebrating the event as well as the ascendancy of Islamist parties in the Egypt Parliament after recent elections.
In a watershed moment for last year’s Arab Spring, Egyptian protesters followed the lead of demonstrators in Tunisia and remained at Tahrir Square for 18 days, starting on January 25.
However, protesters still feel that remnants of Mubarak’s regime reside in the military and are still in power. “The military council is Mubarak,” Amr al-Zamlout, a 31-year-old protester told the television station.
Egyptian blogger and activist, Wael Khalil, told Al-Jazeera “the revolution has not achieved its goal and that’s why the main slogan now on the street is, people going back to Tahrir Square, because the revolution continues until it realizes its goal.”
Further, he added: “The trial of Mubarak, free elections, participation of people in the elections and other demands were not achieved by power from above, not by [Supreme Council of the Armed Forces], but people pressuring from below.”
Since last year’s uprising, there have been a number of protests in Cairo and in other Egyptian cities, with some turning violent.
The head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and de facto ruler, Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, recently said the military will hand over power to an elected president by June.
