With Egyptian parliamentary elections just ahead on November 28th, the Egyptian cabinet resigned today in response to the dozens of civilian casualties since Friday from clashes between Egyptian security forces and civilian protesters in Tahrir Square. The military have indicated that they plan to hold off accepting the resignation of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf until a replacement can be found. While Al Jazeera is reporting that the military accepted the resignations.
White House spokesperson Jay Carney said it is important that Egypt move toward democratic elections, and US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland called for “free, fair elections,” and hoped the electoral process would remain on schedule.
The protests began last Friday when 50,000 people, predominantly Islamist, protested the lack of transition to a civilian government.
The makeup of the protesters has since changed, and now it is primarily the secular protesters who have returned to the square to face the violence and demand an end to the military rule. Over 30 people have been killed, and more than a 1000 injured since this round of clashes began.
The Egyptian military have been running Egypt since Mubarak was ousted during the original Tahrir Square demonstrations. No date has been set yet for presidential elections, at which point the military are supposed to turn over control of Egypt to the civilian government.
The protesters are demanding presidential elections by April 2012.