CAIRO — The Egyptian military, for the first time publicly laying out the terms of its rule, said Sunday that it had dissolved the country’s parliament, suspended its constitution and called for elections in six months, according to a statement by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces read on state television.
The announcement went a long way toward meeting the demands of protesters, who distrusted both houses of parliament after elections in the fall that were widely considered corrupted.
The announcement came only minutes after the prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, made his own appearance on state television and said the country’s economy was “stable” and that the primary focus of the new caretaker government would be “to bring security back to the Egyptian citizen.”
It was unclear whether the two statements were meant to compliment each other. The military did reiterate though that the civilian cabinet would remain in place over the next six months.
In Cairo’s central Tahrir Square, cars began circling the roundabout for the first time in over two weeks as Egyptians and tourists flocked around pictures of dead protesters that hung from clotheslines at one end of the square.
The police, civilians and soldiers with guns slung over their shoulders effected a form of impromptu crowd control, forming human chains to keep the crowds from spilling into traffic.
Nearby, about 500 police officers joined protesters at the Interior Ministry.
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