Bullet Points: What Do Tahrir Protesters Want On April 20th

Tahrir awaiting crowds.

Tomorrow will see protesters descend upon Tahrir Square for the second week in a row. While last week's protest was more dominated by Islamist forces, this one is expected to have a wider participation by various political actors and sides. Despite the fact the main impetus behind the call for the protest is now out of the picture (i.e. Omar Soleiman's nomination was eventually disqualified), Shorouk sums up the six demands that most protesters in the "Friday Of Self-Determination"  seem to still be unified upon. They are, mostly using Shorouk's wording:

1- The ban on the candidacies of former Mubarak-regime figures to the Presidency.

2- The furthering of the goals of the revolution, and pressuring the executive authority to fulfill them  being: "Bread - Freedom - Social Justice."

3- The immediate release of all political prisoners who were arrested during events associated with the revolution, unless they were properly convicted for having committed criminal acts, and forcing the Military Council to stipulate in an official statement that Military Courts would only try military personnel, while civilians would be tried in their normal courts.

4- The amendment of article 28th of the Constitutional Declaration, which gave full powers to the Presidential Election Committee to take binding and non-challengeable decisions.

5- The achievement of a new consensus towards a more representative and fairly-composed Constituent Assembly for the constitution, one that is not dominated by one single political current.

6- The "purging" of high ranking personnel operating within the state's executive bureaucracy who were associated deeply with the Mubarak regime.

One comment remains for the future: too many demands in a protest (regardless of what they are, and regardless of what protest it is) dilute focus, weaken the power of the protest to create pressure, make it more difficult for the general public to articulate opinions and become involved with the debate on the presented ideas or decide on whether or not they want to be part of the protest itself. Less is more.

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