El-Ganzouri asks for at least two months to fulfill revolutionaries’ demands

Ahram Online, Saturday 26 Nov 2011

Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri called on the revolutionary forces, who strongly oppose his appointment as premier, to give him a couple of months to fulfill all their demands

Newly-appointed Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri called on the revolutionary forces, who strongly oppose his appointment as premier, to give him a couple of months to fulfill all their demands.

According to Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, El-Ganzouri also deplored the ongoing sit-in staged before the cabinet headquarters in protest against his appointment by Egypt's ruling military, which was officially announced yesterday.
 
“Protests and sit-ins will make my mission harder,” he was quoted as saying. “The demonstrators have to give the new government the chance, at least for two months, to fulfill its tasks.”

Protesters converged on the cabinet building near Cairo’s Tahrir yesterday, not only to to denounce El-Ganzouri’s appointment, but also to prevent him from entering the premises.

El-Ganzouri’s appointment has been largely rejected by post-revolutionary forces from across the political spectrum.

Critics say the 78-year-old El-Ganzouri, who was previously appointed as prime minister from 1996 to 1999 under ousted president Hosni Mubarak, is too old to relate to revolutionaries or with Egypt's largely young population. Mostly, however, he is rejected for his close association to the former regime.

Some anti-SCAF activists, meanwhile, insist that whoever occupies the post of prime minister is insignificant as long as the military council remains in power.

The current interim government, under Prime Minister Sharaf is expected to remain in office until El-Ganzouri’s new cabinet is appointed. However, Sharaf and his cabinet have already resigned in protest over the violent police attack on Tahrir demonstrators.

Meanwhile, Tahrir Square is the site of a massive demonstration calling for an immediate end of the military junta's rule and the appointment of a national salvation government, led by presidential hopeful Mohamed ElBaradei.

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