Tensions are high in Cairo where protesters are gathering one day after a court ruling cast doubts over the future of Egypt's popular revolt.

Demonstrators began massing in the city's Tahrir Square late Friday, expressing outrage over the decision by Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court to dissolve the Islamist-led parliament and allow Hosni Mubarak's former prime minister to compete in a presidential run-off election.

Some leading Islamists accuse the country's ruling military council of using the court to stage a defacto coup, but demonstrator and Muslim Brotherhood supporter Hamdy Abdel Rahman says Egyptians will not be intimidated.

“We agreed that after elections we can begin to speak out, because we are confident that the people will have their say, the people will choose the Islamic institution, and they will choose what's right and stay away from remnants of the old regime that wasted their blood, raped them and stole their livelihood under full tyranny.”

Iman Ahmed, a protester on hunger strike, made an even more dire prediction:

“I think its going to be like a big war in the country. That's what I think, right, and a lot of people think the same.”

But VOA's Elizabeth Arrott, in Cairo, says the anger has been tempered by a weariness shared by many Egyptians.

“There was an interesting tweet yesterday that one very outspoken had said that, you know, we'd be outraged if we weren't so exhausted. So it has been a very difficult 16 months for people, that they feel that every step they take forward there's one backward. There's a sizeable part of the population that's just tired of seeing protests and just wants to move on, no matter how flawed this process may be.”

The ruling military council has said the runoff election set for Saturday and Sunday between Shafiq and Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohamed Morsi will go on as planned.

And despite the anger being directed at the ruling military council, Mona Makram Ebeid with the American University in Cairo says even a Shafiq win does not likely signal a return to the ways of the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak.

“I think that Shafiq will be an excellent statesman. He will not be the man of the regime the people think of. This is behind his back. He is looking forward; he is looking to the future. He is giving hope to the young people no matter how suspicious they are of him.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said Washington is monitoring the situation and expects to see a “full transfer of power to a democratically-elected civilian government.”

“There can be no going back on the democratic transition called for by the Egyptian people.”

Speaking to supporters in Cairo Thursday, Ahmed Shafiq called the ruling “historic” and urged all Egyptians to take part in the polls. But the Muslim Brotherhood says the court ruling indicated that Egypt was heading into “very difficult days that might be more dangerous than the last days of Mubarak's rule.”