While the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi hails from, was quickly preparing for the upcoming parliamentary elections, a judicial court ruling on 6 March took it by surprise. Cairo's Administrative Court said parliamentary polls, scheduled at the end of next month, cannot be held on time “because the president and Shura Council failed to abide by the constitution in promulgating the new election law”. According to the court, Morsi violated Article 141 of the newly-approved constitution which states that with the exception of defence, national security and foreign affairs, the president cannot exercise his powers without first consulting with the prime minister, his deputies and cabinet ministers.The court thus accused President Morsi of unilaterally ratifying the election law. “This (consultation) is necessary as long as the constitution states that Egypt's new political system is a mixed parliamentary-presidential system in which the president shares powers with the council of ministers,” said the court. The court also said Morsi and the Islamist-dominated Shura Council had violated Article 177 of the constitution which states that the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) should scrutinise political laws before they are ratified by the president. “Although the Shura Council amended the election law in accordance with the findings of the SCC, it refused to refer it back to the SCC to get its final approval of these amendments,” said the court. When the election law was put to a final debate on 21 February in the Shura Council, deputies of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) refused to refer it back to the SCC for final scrutiny. Sobhi Saleh, a leading FJP official and deputy chairman of the council's Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee, argued that Article 177 “does not make it obligatory for the Shura Council to refer the election law back to the SCC after it reviews it.” By contrast, opposition officials cried foul, that the law should have been referred back to the SCC to make sure that the council's amendments of the law were in line with its findings. Gaber Nassar, a prominent constitutional law professor, stressed that the president cannot contest the Administrative Court's ruling. “As long as the court said the law must be referred back to the SCC, the president cannot file an appeal against it in the Higher Administrative Court,” said Nassar. Nassar argues that the court's order exposes what he described the authoritarian policies of President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. “It showed again to all Egyptians that their policies are mainly aimed at serving their political interests and holding all powers in their hands rather than serving the public interests of citizens as a whole,” said Nassar. Nassar insists that the Shura Council refused refer the election law back to the SCC because it ignored implementing two of its observations about the law. Ain Shams University professor Atef Salem points out that the Shura Council refused to implement two SCC orders: that anyone who failed to perform military service for national security reasons must be excluded as a candidate and that electoral districts must be redrawn in a fair way. "These two orders were manipulated by the FJP majority in the council to serve their needs rather than the public interest as demanded by the SCC," says Salem. The National Salvation Front (NSF) hailed the court's order as a victory for its decision to boycott the election. NSF official spokesman Ahmed Al-Boraie underlined that the election law was manipulated by the Muslim Brotherhood in the Shura Council to serve its needs. “The law clearly conflicts with military service law No 127/1980 which states those who posed a threat to national security must be prevented from performing military duty and from joining parliament, not to mention that it failed to redraw electoral districts in a fair way and as ordered by the SCC.” Parliamentary polls, whose first stage was scheduled to be held on 22 April, will now be postponed until the SCC gives its final opinion over the election law. Younis Makhyoun, chairman of the Salafist party Al-Nour, agreed with Al-Baradie that the election law must be referred back to SCC. "The next parliament will face the spectre of dissolution unless the law is referred back to the SCC to for a final say on amended articles." Makhyoun cited a warning issued by SCC deputy chairman Maher Sami that if the Shura Council fails to amend the two laws in accordance with the SCC's findings they could be ruled unconstitutional again". In a national dialogue session with Morsi on 26 February Makhyoun accused the Muslim Brotherhood and its FJP of placing its members in key positions in 25 governorates in order to manipulate the upcoming polls. "The group has also tightened its control over four key ministerial portfolios (information, local development, youth and internal trade and supplies), which is guaranteed to compromise the integrity of the ballot." He demanded "the government of Prime Minister Hisham Qandil be at the very least reshuffled to allow politically neutral ministers to take charge of key portfolios”. Makhyoun's demands were ignored by Morsi. FJP officials insisted that referring the election law back to the SCC would, as one said, be “a waste of time". Chairman of the FJP's Legislative Committee Mokhtar Al-Ashri insisted that "the law cannot be ruled unconstitutional because the constitution does not authorise the SCC to exercise post-ratification scrutiny of political laws".
