Raging against the regime

TENS of thousands packed central Cairo yesterday, waving flags and singing the national anthem, emboldened in their campaign to oust President Hosni Mubarak after they repelled pro-regime attackers in two days of bloody street fights.

The US was pressing Egypt for a swift start toward greater democracy, including a proposal for Mubarak to step down immediately.

Thousands, including families with children, flowed over bridges across the Nile into Tahrir Square, a sign the movement was not intimidated after fending off everything thrown by Mubarak supporters — storms of hurled concrete, metal and firebombs, fighters on horses and camels and automatic gunfire barrages.

In the wake of the violence, more detailed scenarios were beginning to emerge for a transition to democratic rule after Mubarak’s nearly 30-year authoritarian reign.

The Obama administration said it was discussing several possibilities with Cairo — including one for Mubarak to leave office now and hand over power to a military-backed transitional government.

Protesters in the square held up signs reading “Now!”, massing around 100,000 in the largest gathering since the quarter-million who rallied on Tuesday. They labelled yesterday’s rally the “day of leaving,” the day they had hoped Mubarak would go.

Thousands prostrated themselves in the noon prayers, then immediately after uttering the prayer’s concluding “God’s peace and blessings be upon you,” they began chanting their message to Mubarak: “Leave! Leave! Leave!” A man sitting in a wheelchair was lifted — wheelchair and all — over the heads of the crowd and he pumped his arms in the air.

Those joining in passed through a series of beefed-up checkpoints by the military and the protesters themselves guarding the square.

In the afternoon, Mubarak supporters gathered in a square several blocks away and tried to move on Tahrir, banging with sticks on metal fences. But protesters throwing rocks pushed them back.

Various proposals for a post-Mubarak transition floated by the Americans, the regime and the protesters share some common ground, but with one elephant-sized difference: the protesters say nothing can be done before Mubarak leaves.

The 82-year-old president insists he will serve out the remaining seven months of his term to ensure a stable process. “You don’t understand the Egyptian culture and what would happen if I step down now,” Mubarak said he told President Barack Obama. He warned chaos would ensue.

But the Obama administration was in talks with top Egyptian officials about the possibility of Mubarak immediately resigning and handing over a military-backed transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman.

Such a government would prepare the country for free and fair elections later this year. Officials stressed that the United States isn’t seeking to impose a solution on Egypt but said the administration had made a judgment that Mubarak has to go soon if there is to be a peaceful resolution.

Suleiman has offered negotiations with all political forces, including the protest leaders and regime’s top foe the Muslim Brotherhood, over constitutional changes needed to ensure a free vote ahead of September presidential elections to replace Mubarak, who has promised not to run again.

Among them are provisions to ensure independent supervision of elections, a loosening of now suffocating restrictions on who can run for president and a term limit for the president.

Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, one of the leaders of the protest movement, laid out his scenario yesterday: a transitional government headed by a presidential council of two or three figures, including a military representative.

At Tahrir, soldiers checked IDs to ensure those entering were not police in civilian clothes or ruling party members and performed body searches at the square’s entrances, a sign that Egypt’s most powerful institution was sanctioning the demonstration.