Friday 15 June 2012

Egypt elections


"Egypt court orders dissolving of parliament
High court rules entire parliament should be dismissed because of "constitutional violations".


14 June, 2012

In another setback for Egypt's fledgling political process, elected officials have been disqualified and the lower house of parliament dissolved.

The court ruled on Thursday that one third of the seats in the Islamist-dominated parliament were invalid, stirring fresh uncertainty in the politically divided country.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the country's ruling military council, then announced that if any part of the parliament is illegal, then the entire body should be dissolved.

Egypt's constitutional court also ruled against a law that would have barred deposed president Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq from standing in this weekend's presidential poll runoff.

After conflicting reports in Egyptian media over whether a third, or the entire, parliament was to be dismissed, Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh obtained a copy of the court decision, which explicitly states that the entire parliament is dismissed because of "constitutional violations".

Separately, anonymous sources in the SCAF told Al Jazeera that the military body will regain legislative authority and form a new constituent assembly on Friday. Al Jazeera has been unable to confirm this from an official spokesperson in the SCAF.

'Victory' speech

Shafiq welcomed the court rulings in a conference before his supporters, saying an "era of political score settling" was over.
"The message of this historic verdict is that the era of political score settling has ended," Shafik told cheering crowd in Cairo. "The constitutional court has confirmed my right to participate in the election and reinforced the
legitimacy of this election."

Rawya Rageh said it was "really a victory speech ... addressing Egyptians almost as president and not as a candidate".

He praised the military, she noted, and said that the "era of fear-mongering was over".

At the same time, he also tried to reach out to supporters of opposition groups, notably the Muslim Brotherhood and liberal youth protesters.

The parliament had been elected on a complex electoral system in which voters cast ballots for party lists which made up two thirds of parliament, and also for individual candidates for the remaining seats in the lower house.

Earlier, when it appeared that the court had dismissed a third of parliamentarians, speaker Saad al-Katatni, an Islamist, had said before the ruling that the parliament would have to consider how to implement it.

In the absence of a constitution, suspended after last year's overthrow of Mubarak, no authority had the right to dissolve parliament, Katatni said.

He said one possibility would be to hold by-elections for the seats ruled unconstitutional.

Seeking to derail presidential bids by senior Mubarak-era officials, parliament approved the law on April 12 to strip political rights from anyone who served in top government or ruling party posts in the last decade of Mubarak's rule.

After it became clear that the court was dimissin all parliamentarians, the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed El-Erian told Reuters that the ruling would plung the country into a "dark tunnel".

'Must be dissolved'

An administrative court had said in February that the election rules were unconstitutional.

In that vote, two-thirds of seats were allocated to parties and the rest to individuals who were supposed to be independent of any party.

Ahead of the ruling, Judge Mohamed Hamad al-Gamal, a former head of the state council, said political parties should not have been allowed to run for the individual seats.

He also said half, rather than one-third of the seats, should have been apportioned to individuals.

"If it is proven that the election rules were flawed or unconstitutional, then the entire election process is void," Gamal said.

"It would mean that this parliament is unconstitutional, illegitimate and must be dissolved."

Under Mubarak, the Supreme Constitutional Court used similar arguments to rule election laws illegal in 1987 and 1990, forcing the dissolution of parliament, overhauls of the electoral system and early elections.

The based on an informal deal negotiated between parties and the military council, a political deal that was never given formal approval from a court, Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal reported from Cairo.

The decision to still allow Shafiq to run leaves many Egyptians wondering exactly what the revolution had achieved, aside from ousting Mubarak.

New decree

Thursday's judgement comes a day after the justice ministry issued a decree allowing military police and intelligence officers to arrest civilians suspected of crimes, restoring some of the powers of the decades-old emergency law which expired just two weeks ago.


The controversial order was drafted earlier this month, but was not announced until Wednesday.

The decree applies to a range of offences, including those deemed "harmful to the government", destruction of property, "obstructing traffic", and "resisting orders".

Several of those provisions would allow the military to detain peaceful protesters. Rallies in Tahrir Square, for example, routinely disrupt traffic.
It will remain in effect at least until a new constitution is drafted, according to the ministry.


Egypt decree grants arrest powers to military
Controversial order permits arrests for a number of crimes, raising concerns it replaces lapsed emergency law


13 June, 2012

Egypt's justice ministry has issued a decree allowing military police and intelligence officers to arrest civilians suspected of crimes, restoring some of the powers of the decades-old emergency law which expired just two weeks ago.

The controversial order was drafted earlier this month, but was not announced until Wednesday.

The decree applies to a range of offences, including those deemed "harmful to the government," destruction of property, "obstructing traffic," and "resisting orders".

Several of those provisions would allow the military to detain peaceful protesters. Rallies in Tahrir Square routinely disrupt traffic, for example.

It will remain in effect at least until a new constitution is drafted, according to the ministry.

Members of parliament voted on Tuesday to appoint a constitutional assembly, but the process of drafting the document could take months.

Adel al-Mursi, the head of Egypt's military justice, was quoted by AFP news agency as saying that "the decision fills a legal vacuum", while Sayyed Hashim, a former military prosecutor, called it a temporary measure.

"The police force has not yet recovered completely, and security is not back," Hashim was quoted by Associated Press news agency as saying in a television interview.

Parliament bypassed

Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from Cairo, said Egyptian activists see the current order as "much worse than the [previous] emergency law", in that it is seen as expanding the military's power.

"And it comes at a time when the ruling military council is expected to be handing over authority to a civilian authority in less than two weeks' time," she said, adding that the order bypassed the newly elected parliament.

"The initial reactions from the MPs has been very angry, specifically from the powerful Muslim Brotherhood. Some of its members are saying that this is tantamount to a military coup."


Egyptians elect first new president in post-Mubarak era
The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which has the largest number of seats in parliament, issued a statement on the controversial decree, suggesting that parliament will try to bring the issue under its supervision.

The brief statement quoted the party's deputy president, Essam El Erian, as saying parliament will be looking into the justice ministry's right to issue the decision and whether parliament can refuse it or not.

Parliament will seek to have oversight over the implementation of the decision "so that this mandate doesn't exceed its legal and constitutional limits," El Erian said in the statement.

"The Egyptian Revolution happened to get rid of injustice, corruption, autocracy and repression of freedoms - and the Egyptian people won't accept the return of any of that."

'Military coup'

Mohamed Beltagy, another FJP member of parliament, called the decree a "military coup" in an interview with Al Jazeera, and said the measure was not discussed in parliament.

Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, said on Al Jazeera that the decision raises fears about the military's role.

Human rights organisations were also quick to criticise the decision, which they said confirmed that Egypt was a "military state".

Gamal Eid, a prominent human rights lawyer, said the decree made Egypt look like "a banana republic".

"Several of the crimes included in the decree are actually rights, such as the right to freedom of expression against ruling powers or established laws, demonstrations and strikes," according to a statement issued by 15 Egyptian rights groups.

The military has played an extensive and controversial role in the justice system over the last 18 months. More than 12,000 civilians have been hauled before military tribunals since the revolution; rights groups say the military courts do not provide basic standards of due process.

The 31-year-old state of emergency, imposed in 1981 after Anwar Sadat was assassinated, was finally allowed to expire at the end of May. It granted wide-ranging powers to former president Hosni Mubarak's security forces, including the right to detain suspects without trial.

Court rulings

Amr Hamzawy, a liberal member of parliament from Cairo, said in a statement on his Facebook page that the ruling simply "reproduced" the emergency law.

"[It] reproduces the emergency law using new tools and threatens the state of law, for it gives military intelligence and military police powers of judicial execution in crimes committed by civilians," he wrote.

The decree comes just days before the country's presidential runoff, which pits Morsi against Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister in Mubarak's government.

It also comes a day before two crucial court rulings. The supreme constitutional court will decide on Thursday whether to expel Shafiq from the race because of the so-called "political isolation" law, which bars ex-regime officials from running for public office.

The court will also rule on whether parliament is unconstitutional; a lower court found that some provisions of the electoral law - allowing political parties to compete with independent candidates for some seats - might have violated the constitution.



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