Egypt's crisis deepens

At 2am, early Tuesday morning, just half a block from the Egyptian Ministry of Interior, crowds start fires and chant slogans against the ruling military junta. Down the street, men from the nearby Abdeen district stand in front of their homes with sticks, knives, and guns, ready to defend the neighborhood.

The night is punctuated by shouting and gunfire. It’s been nearly three hours since the entire civilian Egyptian cabinet submitted letters of resignation to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), and downtown Cairo is still gripped by chaos.

The protests have been raging since Friday, when peaceful demonstrations against the increasingly authoritarian military devolved into violent clashes. Images of military police beating protesters and dragging dead bodies sparked widespread outrage. Coming just a week before planned parliamentary elections, the ongoing violence has cast a long shadow over Egypt’s political future.

Many political parties have agreed to suspend their parliamentary campaigns temporarily, but rifts are already beginning to emerge between Egypt’s more established political parties and the youth movements that spearheaded the protests.

Many of the established political groups, which are expected to do well in next week’s poll, are not eager to see the crisis deepen and disrupt the voting. The 83-year-old Muslim Brotherhood and the 93-year-old liberal Wafd Party, both issued measured statements, which balanced criticism of the army with calls for stability.

An official for the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing told me that, for the Brotherhood, “elections are still a top priority.” The Brotherhood, which is expected to win a plurality in next week’s elections, also called upon its members to refrain from further demonstrations.

The April 6th Movement, a coalition of youth activists who were crucial in the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak last spring, are advocating a prolonged sit-in. Moving quickly to capitalise on recent mass mobilisation, the Movement has called for a million-man march Tuesday. They are being joined by other youth coalitions and left-wing parties, including the Union of Maspiro Youth.

It seems that even in the face of a three-day police crackdown, which has left dozens dead, Egypt’s political factions are still unable to unite to bring an end to military rule. Political parties poised to do well in elections are unwilling to join the protests, while activist groups with little to gain in the upcoming poll see continued mass mobilization as their most powerful tool.

As the military continues to mismanage the crisis, nearly all political currents agree on one thing: the military is inept. As Evan Hill reports in Al Jazeera, the military—which receives $1.3bn in US funding each year—still inexplicably relies upon 50-year-old communications technology to coordinate crowd control.

As a result, hundred of Egyptians have been wounded and dozens killed in the last 72 hours.

As of sunrise Tuesday morning, demonstrators continue to die on the streets of downtown as protestors and police dig in. Faced with a political and humanitarian crisis, some are suggesting a national “Salvation government” which would take over from the military immediately. Although the notion may have a broad base of political support, there are many unanswered questions and so far the idea seems to be more of a fantasy than a real solution.