CAIRO – Egypt’s new Prime Minister Essam Sharaf on Friday vowed to respond to demands for democratic change as he addressed thousands of protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square a day after his appointment.
“I am here because I get my legitimacy from you… I will exert all my effort to respond to your demands,” Sharaf told the flag-waving supporters in the square, the centre of protests that toppled president Hosni Mubarak last month.
The premier was named by the country’s new military rulers on Thursday to replace Ahmed Shafiq, who was opposed by protesters because he had been appointed by Mubarak in the dying days of his regime. Sharaf, who was born in 1952 and served briefly as a transport minister under Mubarak, had joined protesters in Tahrir Square during the uprising to demand political and economic change.
And in a rare move for an Egyptian official, he appeared in Tahrir Square Friday shortly before Muslim prayers, to be greeted by raucous cheers. Some formed a human tunnel to allow him to walk through the crush of supporters. Repeatedly interrupted by chants of “We are with you”, Sharaf pleaded with the crowd for patience as he began the work of heading a transitional caretaker government.
“I beg you, you did something great and together we will do more,” he said. “I have a heavy task and it will need patience.”
