Egypt’s highest court ruled on Sunday that the nation’s Islamist-dominated legislature and constitutional panel were illegally elected, dealing a serious blow to the legal basis of the Islamists’ hold on power.
The ruling deepens the political instability that has gripped the country since the overthrow of authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak more than two years ago.
The ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court says that the legislature’s upper house, the only one currently sitting, would not be dissolved until the parliament’s lower chamber is elected later this year or early in 2014. The same court ruled to dissolve parliament’s lower chamber in June.
It was not immediately clear whether the ruling on the 100-member constitutional panel would impact in any way on the charter it drafted. The constitution was adopted in a nationwide vote in December with a relatively low turnout of about 35 percent.
But even if it does not, the ruling will question the legal foundations of the disputed charter pushed through by allies of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in an all-night session late last year. Critics say the charter restricts freedoms and gives clerics a say in legislation. The Islamists who drafted it hail the document as the best one Egypt has ever had.
Sunday’s ruling is likely to prolong the polarizing political transition that followed Mubarak’s overthrow. Rival political groups disagree not just on policies and the future course of the nation but on the legitimacy of the basic institutions of government.
It will give heart to the mostly secular and liberal opposition, while providing fresh ammunition to the argument often repeated by the president’s supporters that the judiciary is filled with Mubarak loyalists determined to derail the nation’s political process.
The court on Sunday also ruled unconstitutional clauses in a 1958 law giving the president far-reaching powers under a state of emergency. The invalidated clauses allowed suspects to be arrested with little recourse and placed restrictions on the freedoms of movement and assembly.
The ruling comes ahead of the scheduled climax on June 30 – the president’s first anniversary in office – of a campaign by anti-government protesters to collect 15 million signatures of Egyptians who want to see Morsi leave office.
Morsi has yet to say whether he intends to take any action against the campaign or its organizers, who plan to stage a mass protest outside his Cairo palace on June 30. But the president’s supporters have denounced as illegal the campaign, called Tamarod, or “Rebel,” and there have been several street scuffles between the two sides.
