Egyptian protests against ex-Mubarak PM

There have been major street protests in Egypt against a former prime minister in the Mubarak regime, who is through to the final round of the presidential election.

Ahmed Shafiq is facing a candidate from the Islamist Freedom and Justice party.

Thousands rallied in Alexandria against Shafiq, claiming he should not be allowed to run.

One demonstrator said: “We’re on the streets to demand that the law to purge the residue of the Mubarak era be applied, because after the January 25th revolution, it’s difficult for us to see the military impose Ahmed Shafiq on us as president.”

There was a smaller but no less committed turnout at Tahrir Square in the capital Cairo, focal point of last year’s revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak after three decades of autocratic rule.

A Cairo mother said: “They want to make the man who killed my son the president. It’ll never happen.”

The protests came the day before a court in Cairo was due to deliver its verdicts on charges against the former president, accusations that include conspiracy of pre-meditated mass murder during last year’s uprising.

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