Twin rulings raise suspicions in Egypt

Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court has shocked the Egyptian people with a surprise ruling that disbanded parliament just days before the country votes in the second round to choose a new president. The ruling infuriated the Muslim Brotherhood, which has the largest party in parliament and which accused the court of plunging Egypt into political chaos.

The Constitutional Court’s ruling on parliament is based on what happened in about a third of the seats, which were supposed to be reserved for independents but parties were allowed to put up candidates. This decision was challenged and the court has finally come up with its ruling, which the Islamist speaker of parliament has accepted, but is unsure of how to put right, dismissing dissolution as an answer and talking of a series of by-elections.

But the court also ruled that the candidacy of one of the two presidential candidates, Ahmad Shafiq, was valid, despite his holding office in the previous regime as Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister. He faces Mohammad Mursi, representing the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in tomorrow’s final round of elections for the first presidency to be held in a freely-contested election.

It is worrying that the combination of the two rulings points to a dangerous political activism from the court that favours the military establishment. Its final approval of Shafiq’s candidacy, and the dissolution of parliament, both weaken the position of the Islamists. The establishment parties are frightened that an Islamist president backed by an Islamist parliament will write them out of Egypt’s future, and it seems that the Constitutional Court is helping them keep their grip on power.

The timing of the two rulings was also suspicious as they landed just before the presidential elections. It has not helped that large numbers of Egypt’s military and security forces have been put on alert and have started patrolling the streets, apparently in advance of the presidential elections, but possibly also to bolster the position of the military interim government, which should be preparing to give up office and go back to its barracks.