Egyptian protesters mock transition plan

Hundreds of thousands of protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square mocked a deal to hasten transition to civilian rule that some say favors the Muslim Brotherhood. The agreement centers on presidential elections by late June, but doesn't seem likely to quell the revived protest movement, the largest since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak nine months ago, The New York Times reported. The crowd voiced its disapproval when the deal was announced Tuesday, with fighting breaking out on the street leading to the Interior Ministry, where security forces clashed with demonstrators Wednesday, witnesses said. The Health Ministry said 31 people have died since the latest round of unrest erupted, with more than 600 injured on Tuesday alone. "We refuse it, and the square has refused it already," Islam Lotfy, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood's youth group who was expelled for starting a centrist political party. "They did not offer anything new. They are just bargaining with the people." Similar street battles occurred in Alexandria, with security forces bombarding protesters with tear gas. Demonstrators responded with rocks and fire bombs. Protesters in the Mediterranean city declared an open-ended sit-in until the ruling generals step aside, The Washington Post reported. The rioting broke out after Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi announced the deal struck Tuesday with the Muslim Brotherhood to speed up the transition to civilian rule on a timetable favoring the Islamic movement. Under the original military timetable, presidential elections might not have taken place until 2013. Tantawi insisted his shift was evidence he and his fellow officers never wanted anything more than to guide the country to a democratic future. "The armed forces, represented by their supreme council, do not aspire to govern and put the supreme interest of the country above all considerations," he said. "We do not care who runs for elections and who is elected president, and yet we are accused of being biased." The deal could help the Brotherhood achieve a critical goal, observers said. By beginning the first parliamentary elections in the post-Mubarak era Monday as scheduled, the Brotherhood's new Freedom and Justice Party could make big gains in the new Parliament because of its outreach and organizing -- meaning the Brotherhood could help shape a new constitution. Some Egyptian liberals said the deal raised fears of being caught between a military reluctant to submit to democratic oversight and an Islamic movement with a potentially narrow view of individual freedoms, the Times said. "Pessimists fear the Saudi scenario," liberal activist Shady el-Ghazaly Harb, said recently, referring to the possibility of imposing strict Islamic moral codes and an undemocratic government.