The Administrative Court of Egypt's State Council on Tuesday issued a verdict disbanding local councils nation-wide. The court had set 21 June as the date for declaring its ruling, but decided postponing it pending further deliberation. A lawsuit by lawyer Mokhtar Hany had said that 98 percent of 1750 local councils all over the republic remain in the grip of remnants of the disbanded National Democratic Party. The petition labeled the councils as corrupt. It said they only serve the interests of the disbanded party and disregard the citizens' will. Citing the same reasons, Egyptian revolutionary groups demanded earlier that municipal councils be disbanded.
