Egyptians turnout en-masse to call for president’s resignation
February 10, 2026 8:29 PM
For the past three decades, Hosni Mubarak has been ruled Egypt as its president. Now, Mubarak is being asked to step down from his leadership position by the people of Egypt. Mubarak was elected first for a six-year term on Oct. 6, 1981. He was re-elected in ’87, ’93 and ’99. Finally, in 2005, Mubarak was elected for the last time, due however to a lack of voter participation.
In late January of this year, protests in Cairo demanded the resignation of Mubarak as a result of decades of repression, government corruption and inescapable poverty thrust upon the people of Egypt. Waiting to see if the protestors would lose momentum, he refused to address the people of his country until a full four days of massive protests had passed.
Mubarak’s initial response to the civil unrest was to dissolve his cabinet, seemingly placing the blame for the nation’s discontent at the feet of his ministers. He also appointed a vice president, a position remitted from Egyptian governance for the past three decades.
When, in a state media video announcement, Mubarak finally did address the people, the 82-year old president proclaimed that he would not run again in the upcoming September elections, but that he would also not resign from his post immediately, as the Egyptian people so vehemently demanded. The crowds gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square reacted with chants of “Get Out! Get Out!”
Since then there have been over 2,000 injuries on the streets. Mubarak believes that if he were to step down from his position, there would be a high likelihood that the Muslim Brotherhood would take power of Egypt.
Professor Steven Holloway, current Chair of the StFX Political Science Department, agrees that Mubarak should step down, saying, “He can’t recover at this point. He will probably be gone by September as he pledges. There are some scenarios, some outcomes that don’t look so nice. One question would be what would happen with the peace treaty with Israel? Or the relationship with the US? Both relationships might change”.
Over the past 30 years, the United States has provided Egypt with critical material aid, spending nearly $1.5 billion U.S. annually. The Obama administration has threatened to review and reduce aid until Mubarak is gone and the violence hinders.
While Holloway doesn’t provide any predictions for the Egyptian political system, he does say, “there are a number of comparisons we could make. For example, the Tunisia Revolution where there was a transition to elections, in order to be more democratic. There was the Iranian revolution, which had a long period of turmoil. The Muslim Brotherhood could come up.”
Now, anti-government and pro-government protesters are clashing in the streets. International news providers are being told to not film any more or take pictures, and are even having their cameras taken away and destroyed. Worse was popular CNN journalist Anderson Cooper who was assaulted while covering the protests in Cairo.
For now, it seems as though chaos will continue in the streets without any timeline as to how long the unrest may go on. Hundreds of thousands of people have been protesting day and night in hopes of forcing Mubarak into resignation. In the meantime, protestors continue to suffer injuries in the packed demonstrations.
The only thing that both pro and anti government protestors could agree on was the Muslim prayer time that brought peace, albeit a temporary one, to Tahrir square.
