Egypt's highest court on Thursday ordered the country's
Islamist-dominated parliament dissolved and ruled that the last prime
minister to serve under Hosni Mubarak could stay in the presidential
race, twin blows to the Muslim Brotherhood that could sweep away its
political gains since Mubarak's ouster 16 months ago.
The rulings by the Supreme Constitutional Court, whose judges are
Mubarak appointees, escalated the power struggle between the Brotherhood
and the military, which stepped in to rule after Mubarak's fall. The
decisions tip the contest dramatically in favor of the ruling generals,
robbing the Brotherhood of its power base in parliament and boosting
Ahmad Shafiq, the former Mubarak prime minister who many see as the
military's favorite in the presidential contest against the
Brotherhood's candidate.
Senior Muslim Brotherhood leader and lawmaker Mohammed el-Beltagy said
the rulings amounted to a "full-fledged coup."
"This is the Egypt that Shafiq and the military council want and which I
will not accept no matter how dear the price is," he wrote on his
Facebook page.
The Brotherhood and liberal and leftist activists who backed last year's
revolution against Mubarak accused the military of using the
constitutional court as a proxy to preserve the hold of the ousted
leader's authoritarian regime and the generals over the country. Many of
them were vowing new street protests.
The ruling means that new elections will have to be held to form a new
parliament. In the last election, held over three months starting in
November, the Brotherhood came out the big winners, grabbing nearly half
the seats. Ultraconservative Islamists known as Salafis won another 20
percent. In the months that followed, the Brotherhood tried to translate
those gains into governing power but was repeatedly stymied by the
military's grip.
On Saturday and Sunday, Shafiq goes head-to-head against the
Brotherhood's candidate, Mohammed Morsi, in the presidential run-off.
The race has already deeply polarized the country. The anti-Shafiq camp
views him as an extension of Mubarak's authoritarian regime. The
anti-Morsi camp fears he and the Brotherhood will turn Egypt into an
Islamic state and curtail freedoms if he wins.
In its decisions Thursday, the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that a
third of the legislature was elected illegally. As a result, it says in
its explanation of the ruling, "the makeup of the entire chamber is
illegal and, consequently, it does not legally stand."
The explanation was carried by Egypt's official news agency and
confirmed to The Associated Press by one of the court's judges, Maher
Sami Youssef.
The law governing the parliamentary elections was ruled unconstitutional
by a lower court because it breached the principle of equality when it
allowed party members to contest a third of seats set aside for
independents. The remaining two thirds were contested by party
slates.
In a separate ruling, the court said Shafiq could stay in the
presidential race, rejecting a law passed by parliament last month that
barred prominent figures from the old regime from running for
office.
Defenders of the law argued that after a revolution aimed at removing
Mubarak's rule, parliament had a right to prevent regime members from
returning to power. Opponents of the law called it political revenge
targeting Shafiq. The court said the law was not based on "objective
grounds" and was discriminatory, violating "the principle of
equality."
"This historic ruling sends the message that the era of score-settling
and tailor-made law is over," a vigorous Shafiq told supporters gathered
in a rally.
The rulings throw Egypt deeper into uncertainty and threaten more
instability after more than a year of tumultuous transition under the
military's rule. Throughout, opponents of the military have accused it
of seeking to preserve its influence over politics even after its
promised handover of power to the elected president by July 1. They also
believe it wants to largely keep the bases of Mubarak's rule in place,
including many figures from his now dissolved ruling party.
At the same time, there has been widespread public dissatisfaction with
the Islamist-led parliament, which many criticized as ineffective.
The Brotherhood's popularity had declined since the legislative
elections because of moves that critics saw as attempts to monopolize
the political scene and advance its own power. It angered liberals,
leftists and secular Egyptians when it and other Islamists tried to
dominate a parliament-created panel tasked with writing the next
constitution. The panel was dissolved by court order, and a new one had
yet to be appointed.
The dissolution of parliament now raises the possibility the military
council could appoint the panel, a step that would fuel accusations that
it is hijacking the process.
The legal adviser of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood's
political arm, said the court rulings were "political," lamenting the
outgoing legislature as the country's "only legitimate and elected
body."
"They are hoping to hand it over to Ahmed Shafiq and make him the only
legal authority in the absence of parliament. The people will not accept
this and we will isolate the toppled regime," Mukhtar el-Ashry said in a
posting on the party's website.
A moderate Islamist and a former presidential candidate, Abdel-Moneim
Abolfotoh, said the rulings amounted to a "coup" and warned that the
youth, pro-democracy groups that engineered the uprising that toppled
Mubarak last year would protest the court's rulings.
"Those who believe that the millions of young people will let this pass
are fooling themselves," he wrote on his Twitter account.
AP