The Shura Council (Upper House of Parliament), which is temporarily assuming the role of legislature until the elected-to-be house of deputies comes into being, is in full swing coming up with draft bills regarding diverse fields. But many of the discussed bills have turned controversial, substantiating an existing state of polarisation which is hampering the country from surmounting problems of the past and setting foot in a new era. A case in point is the judicial authority law, which the Shura Council insists on discussing despite the refusal of the judiciary's community of it in form and content. The dispute between the acting legislature and the judicial authority is escalating, threatening a serious political crisis. The Shura Council had also approved two draft bills concerning election law and political rights which the highest court in Egypt ruled this week, for the second time, as unconstitutional. According to the court verdict, these laws hammered out by the Islamist-dominated Shura Council curiously included articles, which violated articles of the Constitution. Ironically, the Constitution itself was written by a Constituent Assembly also dominated by an Islamist membership, the outcome of which has not been entirely satisfactory to liberal forces. It raises the question that the trend responsible for writing the constitution has failed to work out laws compatible with this charter. The ready defence that the Council's Brotherhood members raised in the face of the opposition regarding draft bills, is that the Council members are representatives of the people. But they seem to forget that the turnout in the Shura Council election was a mere seven per cent of the electorate, because most eligible voters declined to go to the polls on the ground that the Council had no definite jurisdiction. It was actually assigned the legislative task later on in the Constitution in the absence of the Lower House of Parliament. Much doubt is therefore cast today on the performance of the Shura Council and on the nature of the laws it is keen to pass. Is it manoeuvring to delay the issue of the elections law given the dwindling popularity of the MB on the street? Or is it trying to pass whatever laws are geared to the interest of the MB before the elections? In both cases, the acting legislature has come under the fire of the opposition and sectors of dissatisfied citizens who are worried over the latent state of hostility among authorities which does not forecast an approaching state of political stability.
