Egypt's electoral law ruled invalid, but legislature stays
Author: Nehal El-Sherif
Cairo (dpa) - The electoral law used to elect the upper house of parliament is unconstitutional, Egypt's highest court said Sunday in a ruling that was expected to widen the political divide in the country.
The Islamist-dominated Shura Council is not to be dissolved, however, because the Constitutional Court said its ruling would take effect when a new lower chamber is elected.
The court also ruled that the constituent assembly, which drafted Egypt's current constitution, was invalid.
The ruling spread confusion about the fate of the constitution, but President Mohammed Morsi's office released a statement saying the constitution is the state's reference that should be respected by all authorities.
The opposition has accused Morsi of seeking to tighten his Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group's hold on power and has charged that he and the Muslim Brotherhood are becoming increasingly autocratic. Sunday's rulings were expected to drive the two sides farther apart.
Prominent opposition figure Mohammed ElBaradei said the court's rulings were "an expected result to the political bullying that cast away the meaning of legitimacy and the rule of law."
The founder of the opposition April 6 Youth Movement, Ahmed Maher, said the rulings came late.
"Slow justice is the same as unjust rule," Maher said.
Sunday's rulings did not address what would now happen with the constitution, which passed in a December referendum with 63.8 per cent of the votes and 35-per-cent turnout.
But the court found the constituent assembly invalid because of the way it was formed. It was established by the lower house of parliament, which was dissolved in another ruling by the Constitutional Court in June 2012 that also found the electoral law unconstitutional.
The Shura Council, which used to have limited powers, was then granted all legislative powers, and according to the new constitution, it would remain in charge until new elections.
The Shura Council is currently drafting a new electoral law, so no dates for elections for the upper and lower houses have been set.
Morsi's supporters control the chamber because he appoints 90 of its members and, of the remaining 180 elected seats, 105 are held by the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Egypt's political rift began a year ago when the Constitutional Court declared the electoral law unconstitutional.
The Freedom and Justice Party attacked the judges and accused them of loyalty to the regime of president Hosny Mubarak, who was overthrown more than two years ago in a popular revolution. The party had 45 per cent of the seats in the dissolved lower house.
A short time later, Morsi took office and tried to reinstate the lower chamber. He also issued a degree in November granting immunity from dissolution for the constitutional assembly, whose remit ended with the passage of the new constitution in a referendum in December.
His decisions enraged judges. Morsi also had called for parliamentary elections in April, but the court suspended the polls.
Sunday's rulings came ahead of mass anti-government protests planned June 30, the day Morsi took power last year.
