(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Pressure was growing on Sunday on Lebanon's government after a protest campaign spurred by a trash crisis gave political leaders a deadline to meet their demands.
"Your time is up," the "You Stink" campaign behind Saturday's huge demonstration in downtown Beirut said on its Facebook page.
At a mass rally on Saturday, "You Stink" threatened an "escalation" of their protest movement if the government does not meet their demands by Tuesday evening.
The 72-hour ultimatum is calling for a sustainable solution to a trash crisis that flared in mid-July and the resignation of Environment Minister Mohammad Mashnuq.
"You Stink" is also demanding new parliamentary elections to replace a legislature that has been in power since 2009.
On Saturday, protesters gathered in Beirut's iconic Martyrs Square to express their rage at endemic corruption in the government and lack of basic services, including power and water shortages.
Carrying Lebanese flags and clever multilingual banners, men and women of all ages flooded the square in a rare example of non-partisan mobilisation in the divided republic.
"The citizen first" and "Down with the rule of the corrupt", read some of the banners held up by protesters who said they were fed up with the political class.
Some read out the names of Lebanese political leaders - many of whom have been in their posts for over a decade - and yelled "Leave!" after each name.
Newspapers on Sunday paid tribute to the tens of thousands who flooded the streets, noting that for once the protest was organised by civil society instead of Lebanon's divided political elite.
'Certainty of change'
"The Saturday of the people," headlined As-Safir newspaper.
An-Nahar daily said the demonstration "points to the certainty of change... under the pressure of a street that has been freed of the division between March 8 and March 4".
It was referring to Lebanon's main rival political blocs. March 14 is supported by Washington and Riyadh, while March 8 is headed by Hezbollah, which has the backing of both Damascus and Tehran.
The protest movement was initially launched to demand a solution to the crisis that has seen rubbish pile up on the streets uncollected. But it has expanded to call for a total government rehaul.
There was no official government response on Sunday to demands by the protesters, who are also calling for municipalities to take responsibility for rubbish collection.
Prominent Druze leader Walid Jumblatt tweeted that Saturday's protests "expressed the true pains of the Lebanese citizen... that no party dares to respond to".
Political rivalries have undermined change in Lebanon for years.
The 128-seat parliament has twice extended its mandate since 2009, and has been unable to elect a president since May 2014 while deadlock has paralysed any effective work by the cabinet.
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