Egypt’s military dissolves parliament, calls for elections

August 2, 2016

Updated on Feb. 13, 2011 · 3:49 PM EST

By News Desk

Egypt's military leaders Sunday dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution and called for an election in six months, according to a statement read on television.

The statement by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces addressed many of the demands of the protesters who spent more than two weeks demonstrating across Egypt as they called for the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt's parliament has been seen as too close to Mubarak as many of the members won seats through political connections and rigged elections.

Protest leaders responded to the announcement mostly positively, chanting in Tahrir Square, "Victory! Victory."

"It is a victory for the revolution," Ayman Nour, a former presidential candidate and political dissident, told Reuters. "I think this will satisfy the protesters."

The call for elections alleviated fears of open-ended military rule, but it also raised questions over the transition period. The military, which took power after Mubarak stepped down Friday, now has direct authority over the country for the first time since Egypt was founded in 1952.

"Though enjoying popular support, the military must now cope with the formidable task of negotiating a post-revolutionary landscape still basking in the glow of Mr. Mubarak’s fall but beset by demands to improve Egyptians’ many hardships," reports The New York Times.

"Since seizing power from Mr. Mubarak on Friday, the military has struck a reassuring note, responding in words and actions to the platform articulated by hundreds of thousands in Tahrir Square. But beyond more protests, there is almost no check on the sweep of military rule. Its statement said it would form a committee to draft constitutional amendments — pointedly keeping it in its hands, not the opposition’s — though it promised to put them before a referendum."

The military also called for tents to be removed from Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests. Traffic began to flow through the square again this weekend for the first time in weeks.