Cairo: A decision by Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammad Mursi to reinstate the dissolved parliament has set an early showdown between him and the country’s powerful military and judiciary, according to experts.
“This decision puts an end to a short honeymoon between Mursi and the military council,” said Amr Hashim, a political analyst. “It puts him on a collision course with the two powers involved in disbanding the parliament,” he added.
Last month, the Supreme Constitutional Court, Egypt’s highest court, invalidated the Islamist-controlled lower house of parliament, or the People’s Assembly, declaring as unconstitutional rules on which the house was elected earlier in the year. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), who took over after Hosni Mubarak’s toppling in a popular revolt, enforced the court ruling.
Islamists took to the streets in protest, especially after the military retook the legislative control in what critics called a power grab.
“I wonder how Mursi pledged in his oath of the office to respect judicial rulings and later decreed reinstating the dissolved People’s Assembly,” said Hashim, who is an expert at the state-run Al Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies.
The Scaf held a crisis meeting on Sunday night following Mursi’s decree, but made no public statement. The independent newspaper Al Shorouk on Monday quoted what it called a close source to the Scaf, as describing Mursi’s decision as unlawful. “Any decisions to be issued by the reinstated parliament will be illegal and void,” added the unnamed source.
‘Deal’
Islamists, including Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood, lauded his move as a “victory for legitimacy”. Meanwhile, liberals criticised it, saying it has plunged Egypt into a political and constitutional standoff.
“This decision was apparently the result of a deal between the Brotherhood and the military,” said Bahi Eddin Hassan, a prominent human rights activist. “It was the brainchild of the Brotherhood, not the president himself. It will most likely cause a tough crisis between the new president and the Supreme Constitutional Court,” he added.
This was the court that swore in Mursi on June 30 due to the dissolution of parliament where his predecessors took the constitutional oath. Days after taking office, Mursi conferred a prestigious national medal on the court’s chief Farouk Sultan to mark his reaching the retirement age.
Tharwat Selim, a military expert, believes that a confrontation is looming between Mursi and the judiciary, not the army. “The military council has no interest in seeing parliament dissolved or not. The council merely practised its executive authority when it enforced the court’s verdict,” he told Gulf News.
“Besides, the council is not interested in power, which it has already transferred to the president upon his inauguration. So, there will be no showdown between them. The real problem lies with the judiciary whose authority was blatantly violated by Mursi’s decision.”
Mursi and the head of the military council Field Marshal Hussain Tantawi on Monday both attended a military graduation ceremony in Cairo, according to state media.
