Mubarak resigns as ruling party chief

CAIRO - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Saturday stepped down as chairman of the country’s ruling party, as the mass uprising against his three-decade-old rule entered the 12th day.

Mubarak stepped down along with the rest of his National Democratic Party’s (NDP) top leaders, Al Jazeera reported citing state television, as as tens of thousands of protesters stood their ground in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Hossam Badrawi has been appointed the new secretary-general of the party, the report said. He replaces Safwat El-Sherif, a Mubarak loyalist, in that post.

Badrawi will also replace Gamal Mubarak, Mubarak’s son, as head of the party’s political bureau.

“It is quite significant, it means the pressures on the regime are gaining some response … but not enough,” Omar Ashour, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera.

However, Ashour said, the move is unlikely to satisfy protesters, who have been demanding his removal from president post.

He said the resignations are a “cosmetic” move, and that they were “like trying to treat a cancer with a pair of aspirin”.