President Mohamed Morsi will keep his legislative powers but only use them if necessary and in consultation with other political forces, his spokesperson Yasser Ali said Tuesday. President Morsi issued a constitutional declaration on 12 August transferring legislative powers from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to himself. The SCAF had earlier dissolved parliament and acquired its legislative powers via a constitutional addendum, which it issued on 17 June. President Morsi revoked the SCAF's constitutional addendum on 12 August and issued a new one granting himself legislative powers. Ali rejected calls for the president to transfer legislative powers to the Shura Council (parliament's upper house) because that body itself is threatened with dissolution by the Supreme Administrative Court at a hearing on 4 September. The spokesperson went on to dismiss calls for legislative powers to be transferred to the constituent assembly tasked with drafting the new constitution. "It will be a burden on the assembly and its members," Ali said. Fresh parliamentary election will be held sixty days after the new constitution is approved by a nationwide referendum, he added. Sobhi Saleh, a Muslim Brotherhood member of the constituent assembly, said the constitution would be ready “before 24 September." However, the assembly's spokesperson, Waheed Abdel-Meguid, said it would take at least three more weeks.
