THE shocking presidential decree taken by President Mohammed Morsi to recall the dissolved People's Assembly (lower parliamentary house), so as to resume its sessions, provoked a storm of opposition and even calls for questioning the President over violating his oath with respect to the rule of law and the constitution. Meanwhile, clarifications made by some legal practitioners concerning the decree and its purpose have made many analysts consider this as a political issue. They believe that it is intended to restore the Presidential authority from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) rather than confronting or violating a court ruling issued by the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court issued its verdict declaring the parliamentary election law unconstitutional last month shortly before naming the new president. Accordingly, SCAF issued its decree to dissolve the parliament and restore the legislative authority and issued the Supplementary Constitutional Declaration specifying the authority of the new president. Most analysts at the time considered the court ruling as political rather than legal because of its critical timing. Despite the opposition of the different powers to the Supplementary Constitutional Declaration curbing the authority of the President and prolong the military council's presence on presence of the military council on the scene, SCAF members justified it. They maintained that it was a political necessity in order to run State affairs in the absence of the parliament and drawing up the new constitution and electing a new parliament. Similarly, President Morsi, who affirms his full respect for the Constitutional Court and its rulings, decided to recall the parliament with its Islamist majority to restore its sessions, considering it as an exceptional procedure until there is the new constitution, the election law amended and the parliamentary elections held. Accordingly he specified that the date of the parliamentary elections should fall within 60 days of endorsing the new constitution via a public referendum. However, many legal experts and the judiciary authority as well as political activists insist that the decree still violates the rule of law and the highest judiciary authority in the country, namely the Constitutional Court, and insist on the president to seek a way out of this dilemma. Apart from this legal debate, the country seems to continue to be subjected to political conflict between the elected president and the military council as well as the Islamists and the liberal and revolutionary powers, who are trying not to lose their battle to create a democratic civil state. Citizens seem to be the ones that are suffering from this state of continued instability and conflict between different authorities due to the expected delay in effecting the requisite economic and social reforms to upgrade their living condition and resolve their accumulated problems.
