CAIRO, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Thousands of Egyptians protested on Cairo streets denouncing the country's military junta a day before they say a general strike will knock it from power.
Some of the most frequent chants heard across Cairo included "Down with the field marshal" and "Tantawi must be executed," Bikyamasr.com said.
Friday's demonstrations united Egyptians from all walks of life and all ages in the common purpose to see the military out and civilian rule back in.
"We are joining [the protest] because Egypt is our country and we want a good future," said one man holding his 9-years-old grandson's hand.
The marches came ahead of Saturday's anniversary of President Hosni Mubarak's ouster after a revolution that began 18 days earlier and led to the military's post-Mubarak rule.
The anniversary was to be marked by a planned general strike to demand an immediate government transfer to civilian rule, al-Ahram Online reported.
The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist religious, political and social movement legalized after Mubarak's fall, said in a TV interview with one of its senior leaders the military must replace the prime minister and Cabinet with a new coalition government formed by the new Parliament.
The Brotherhood controls nearly 50 percent of the Parliament's seats and is widely considered Egypt's largest, best-organized political force.
The call for the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to hand over power to civilians is street protesters' key demand but a move the Brotherhood previously rejected.
"We must start the formation of a coalition government immediately, to deal in particular with the economic situation and the state of lawlessness in this homeland," Khairat al-Shater, deputy to the Brotherhood's supreme guide and one of its most influential figures, told the pan-Arab TV network al-Jazeera.
Shater cited the government's repeated use of deadly force against protesters demanding an immediate power turnover to civilians as a negligent failing of the military's policing and security.
"Dealing with the demonstrators violently is a mistake, a sign of weakness and mismanagement by the Ministry of Interior," he said, promising the Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, would "not monopolize the government."
But secular liberal party leaders who called for months for an immediate power turnover to civilians said in response they would not form a coalition with the Islamists, preferring to remain an opposition bloc.
"There is no difference between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military council -- they have a deal to work together," lawmaker Emad Gad, a leader of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, which has 25 parliamentary seats, told The New York Times.
"The liberals would prefer to be in opposition to monitor and leave it to the Brotherhood to implement their control," he said.
The military council has had to deal with intensifying domestic and foreign crises, including a deadly soccer riot, days of violent protests, a standoff with Washington that imperils billions in aid and a teetering economy.
