CAIRO—Egypt's highest court annulled the country's Islamist-dominated upper House of Parliament and a prominent panel that drafted the constitution, a decision that sets up another collision between the country's ruling Muslim Brotherhood and the nation's judges.
The Supreme Constitutional Court ruled Sunday that the law governing Shura council elections in January last year was unconstitutional, as were the laws used to select members of the Islamist-dominated committee that drafted the constitution.
The practical impact of the ruling remained unclear. Presiding Judge Maher al-Beheiry said the constitution itself wasn't annulled, despite the unconstitutional manner in which the committee that drafted it was set up. And the court said the Shura Council could remain seated until a new parliament is elected.
In response to the ruling, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's office released a statement stressing the constitution remained valid and Egyptians were "keen on utilizing, as well as defending it." The presidency added that the Shura council will continue to exercise its full legislative role until the transfer of power to a new parliament.
Still, analysts said the rulings could threaten the ability of Mr. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood to rule effectively if it rejuvenates their critics and pushes more of the opposition to participate in protests planned for the coming weeks. "This is a huge blow to the morale of the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi, but the Muslim Brotherhood will not take this lightly," said Mustafa El-Labbad, director of the Cairo-based Al Sharq Center for Regional and Strategic Studies, an independent research center.
Critics of the government seized on the ruling as an indication the Brotherhood's power was coming under scrutiny and could be rolled back. "The Shura council was a vulgar display of power for the Muslim Brotherhood. The real problem here is what this will mean for the political weight of the Brotherhood because the council they once controlled has been ruled void," said Ziad Akl, senior analyst at the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, a state-run think tank.
The Shura, which has acted as Egypt's only lawmaking body since the country's lower house of parliament was dissolved last year, is dominated by the Freedom and Justice Party, the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, which controls 105 of the 180 electoral seats. Although the laws passed by the Shura council will remain in effect until a new legislative body is established, Egypt currently has no legitimate authority to approve laws, said Mr. Akl.
Sobhi Saleh, a leading member of the Freedom and Justice party and a Shura council representative said the house would continue fulfilling its work normally and all legislation it passed were sound and true, according to Egypt's state TV website.
The ruling comes as opposition to Mr. Morsi and the Brotherhood appear to be regrouping. Tamarud, or "Rebel," is a new movement which is supported by many of Egypt's moderate and liberal activists. It claimed last month to have gathered momentum by gathering around 2 million signatures from citizens who are against Mr. Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government. The group has vowed to stage mass protests on June 30 to pressure Morsi and his ruling party to step down.
Muslim Brotherhood supporters said the ruling showed that the Court was continuing to "overstep its boundaries" by injecting itself in politics. "This ruling means that parliament elections will have to happen much sooner than we expected because they were initially set for later this year. " said Ibrahim Farag, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. "The supreme court has diverted from its constitutional role and has allowed itself to become biased by playing in politics."
Mr. Farag accused the judges of using the ruling to undermine the prospects for the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood's political arm, in the coming elections. "This is a political tax that the party must endure now because this Shura council was dominated by the Muslim Brotherood," he said. "But practically, our emphasis is in the street and we believe that we will get the majority in coming elections."
The legal cases against both the Shura Council and constitutional drafting committee were brought by lawyers who questioned the legality of the law that governed the elections and the formation of the drafting committee. Both the upper and lower houses of Egypt's parliament were elected under the same electoral law. The latter was ruled invalid and dissolved last year by the Supreme Constitutional Court.
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has repeatedly protested against the nation's top judges and called for the president to remove judges who were once aligned with ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Since Mr. Morsi was inaugurated last July, he has tried to reform the judiciary, but found obstacles from the nation's judges.
The ruling by Egypt's highest court is said to have set up a new political dilemma for both the president and the judges. "This is a big legal and constitutional mess, we now have become void of a valid, unanimously agreed upon legal body that makes laws in Egypt," Mr. Akl said.
03 Jun, 2013
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