Thousands of protesters coming from different parts of Cairo have gathered in the vicinity of the People's Assembly, which held its first session on Monday, to demand an end to military trials, the handover of power to civilians, retribution from the "killers of the rebels" and the application of a minimum and maximum wage.
Protesters were joined by doctors marching from the Doctors Syndicate on Qasr al-Aini Street, located meters away from the Parliament. The doctors were shouting slogans against the military council.
Some protesters objected to the electoral process conducted under the auspices of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which seized power after former President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on 11 February 2011.
As a Freedom and Justice Party MP walked out of Parliament through the crowds, he was met with chants of, "Here is the thief."
An Egypt Independent reporter said that some protesters worried that the Parliament would forgo the revolution’s goals and were there to remind them of the rights of the martyrs, amongst other things.
Pharmacist Ahmed Sayed said: "I'm here to participate in the first democratic day of Egypt, the first step in handing over power to a civilian government. Regarding the others who are here chanting against Parliament, there are things we agree on, such as handing over power and the rights of martyrs. What I don't agree on is viewing Parliament as traitors and saying they are the choice of the ignorant poor. There are candidates who lost here protesting. Had they won, they would be inside."
Hundreds of artists and intellectuals held a march from the Cairo Opera House. It was called for by the “Creativity Front" to demand the addition of an article to the constitution that protects freedom of creativity. Among the protesters was Mohamed Salmawy, president of Egypt’s Writers Union.
Another march in which protesters held the Egyptian flag with a picture of a crescent and a cross printed on it to epitomize the unity of the Egyptian Muslims and Christians also arrived at the Parliament. They shouted slogans against the Muslim Brotherhood, whose Freedom and Justice Party won a sizable number of People’s Assembly seats.
By 3 pm about 2,000 protesters had lined up on the street leading to Parliament, which was blocked off by scores of Central Security Forces who did not interfere in the marches. They were shielded by hundreds of Salafis and Muslim Brotherhood members, who came to prevent possible clashes in front of the building.
On a side street which leads to another building entrance there were additional soldiers and barbed wire.
"It's ironic that it is first session of a democratically elected parliament and they have the building blocked on all sides by police and iron gates," said one protester who declined to give his name.
