CAIRO - Thousands of political activists demonstrated in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square yesterday to press the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to speed up the transfer of power to civilians and rescind emergency laws, which have been in place since 1981. The laws give the police almost unquestionable powers, and activists say they are to blame for much of the human rights abuse that occurred under Mubarak, who was ousted in February. In their protest, held under the theme of “Reclaiming the Revolution”, the activists expressed their anger about the way the military council has been managing the country since the downfall of president Hosni Mubarak on February 11. Earlier in the week, the SCAF, chaired by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, said that the multi-phase legislative elections will start on November 28 with a mixed system of proportional representation and individual lists. The activists, who represented various political groups, said that they feared the system would allow Mubarak cronies to return to the People's Assembly (the Lower House of the Egyptian Parliament). They said that the rally aimed to restore the January 25 revolution, which had been stolen from them. They also said that they wanted the SCAF to hand over power to civilians by next March. The activists also declared that the state of emergency legally expired yesterday in accordance with Article 59 of the Constitutional Decree, and any decision or judicial ruling issued after September 30, 2011 would be void. They also demanded the Government of Essam Sharaf to reactivate a graft law dating back to 1952 that criminalised abuse of authority, to try remnants of the Mubarak regime and prevent them from practising their political rights for at least ten years. The activists demanded an end to military trials of civilians, cleansing institutions of former regime members, amendment of a recently published electoral law and social justice. The powerful Muslim Brotherhood stayed away from yesterday's protest. On Thursday, the SCAF warned against any threat to democracy and national security and “those elements that seek to impede the democratic transformation that began with the call for parliamentary elections”. “Those who have called for the protest bear the responsibility to organise, secure and protect all private and public property,” SCAF said in a statement posted on its Facebook page. “Any encroachment on Army units, camps or important establishments will be considered as a threat to Egyptian national security and dealt with the utmost firmness,” it added.
