The fallout from last week's fighting continues to be covered in Sunday's papers. After day-long running battles between protesters and police that left at least 42 protesters dead and over a thousand injured, newspapers attempt to shed light on what happened over the past week.
Al-Ahram leads with the headline, “Rage in front of the cabinet and calm in Tahrir,” reporting on the sit-in outside the cabinet building to oppose the appointment of Kamal al-Ganzouri as prime minister. It mentions the Saturday morning incident in which protesters clashed with police vans outside the cabinet, resulting in the death of 19-year-old protester Ahmed Sorour. The state-run paper reports that the Interior Ministry apologized to Sorour's family and insisted it was not attempting to forcibly break up the sit-in.
Al-Ahram's coverage is surprisingly balanced, quoting Mona Mina from Doctors With Rights (which the paper mistakenly calls “Doctors Without Borders”), who stated that Central Security Forces aggressively assaulted protesters in an attempt to break up the sit-in. The paper even manages to report that people chanted against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) at the sit-in.
State owned Al-Akhbar reports that SCAF head Hussein Tantawi met with both Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Moussa separately to discuss ways out of the current impasse. The paper reports that Sorour's death has angered the Tahrir Square protesters who are demanding a national salvation government. The paper also reports that Ganzouri met with representatives of revolutionary youth movements and assured them his government will have complete authority with no interference, a charge that was aimed at the government of resigned Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and his cabinet.
Privately owned Al-Tahrir reports that the SCAF has lost the legitimacy of the revolution after recent events. Editor-in-Chief Ibrahim Eissa writes in a column that SCAF no longer has any relation to the revolution. He added that the revolutionaries in the square have said quite loudly that the military generals can no longer claim this mantle.
Regarding the meetings with Moussa and ElBaradei, privately owned Al-Shorouk reports that Tantawi asked the two presidential hopefuls to back Ganzouri’s government. Protesters in Tahrir and in front of the cabinet are opposed to naming Ganzouri as prime minister and are calling for a national salvation government to head the transitional period instead of the SCAF. The paper reports that ElBaradei refused to back the Ganzouri government.
Al-Tahrir reports that ElBaradei told Tantawi that he was that he was committed to the square and its demands.
And all of this is happening with the parliamentary elections due to begin on Monday. Al-Shorouk also reports that the high elections commission has announced that there will be no delay or cancellation of the elections and that they will proceed on time. Head of the commission Abdel Moez Ibrahim reiterated this stance to the paper after coming out of a meeting with the SCAF.
Al-Wafd reports that head of the Judges Club Ahmed al-Zend stated in a press conference that the elections will happen on time and that the judges overseeing voting are adamant that they will supervise them properly despite the current tensions. The judges added that they will not allow “conspiracies” to delay democracy in Egypt.
Amid all the gloom and tension, Al-Tahrir manages to report a funny story about an Egyptian citizen named Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, one of the many Egyptians who has already voted from abroad. Even more strangely, he voted from Israel.
Egypt's papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Youm7: Daily, privately owned
Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned
Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party
