Ruling delayed THE SUPREME Constitutional Court (SCC) decided on Sunday to adjourn its ruling on the legality of the make-up of the Constituent Assembly which drafted the current constitution until 3 March. A lawsuit calling for dissolving the Constituent Assembly on the grounds that the law which regulated the criteria for electing its members was invalid has been before the Constitutional Court, waiting for a ruling. Still, it is not clear what would happen if the SCC ordered a dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. Will this necessarily mean an annulment of the constitution, which was recently endorsed despite outrage from opposition groups? Legal experts differ over the would-be repercussions.
Press Syndicate elections THE PRESS Syndicate has completed the registration process for the mid-term election scheduled to be held in March. Until Al-Ahram Weekly went to print, four journalists applied to run for the chairman seat as 13 others applied to run for the board. The mid-term election held every two years to re-elect the chairman and six out of 12 members in the syndicate board. Among the candidates for the chairman seat are Diaa Rashwan, director of Al-Ahram Centre For Political and Strategic studies, and Noura Rashed, deputy editor-in-chief of Al-Massaya newspaper. While Adel Sabri the editor-in-chief of Al-Wafd news website, Osama Dawoud deputy editor of Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, Karem Mahmoud, the current secretary-general of the syndicate are among the candidates for the board member seats. “I am running in this election to defend the right of journalists at this critical time that Egypt is passing through,” said Diaa Rashwan. The current chairman, Mamdouh Al-Wali, decided not to run for a second term, following a fierce campaign from his opponents who accused him of achieving nothing since he was elected two years ago. Al-Wali also lost the election in the recent Arab Federation for Journalist.
Gomaa's successor AL-AZHAR's Senior Scholars Authority will meet within the coming few days to review papers of candidates for the post of the grand mufti of Egypt. The term of the current Mufti Ali Gomaa will end in March. Sources from Al-Azhar's senior Scholars Authority stressed that Gomaa's successor does not belong to any of the existing political groups or parties. Sheikh Abdel-Rahman Al-Barr, a professor at Al-Azhar University and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Bureau, is among the three top names, nominated for the post. Saadeddin Al-Helali and Mohamed Al-Gebali, two Al-Azhar university professors, are in the list of the nominees. President Mohamed Morsi is due to choose one of the three nominees.
Professionals assembled REPRESENTATIVES of more than 16 professional syndicates participated in a conference held on Tuesday at the headquarters of the Syndicate of Commercial Professions. The conference discussed tools of re-distributing society revenues among professionals and how to guarantee their participation in the decision-making process and in supervising projects carried out by the state. Besides, the conference drafted a document that will ensure the total independence of professional syndicates from the state. Former deputy chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court Tahani Al-Gebali and prominent sociologist Saadeddin Ibrahim were among the attendees.
