Morsi provokes Constitutional Crisis in Egypt by recalling Parliament. Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi tried to steal third base on Sunday, announcing that he was calling back into session the dissolved Egyptian parliament. It would continue to meet, he said, until new parliamentary elections, to be held within 60 days of the completion of the new constitution. He thus took on both the Supreme Court and the officer corps, setting the stage for a face-off.
The law under which the parliament had been elected was found unconstitutional by Egypt’s Supreme Court in mid-June, and it found that the body was null and void as a result. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) then ordered the parliament dissolved. It later scheduled new parliamentary elections for late 2012, after a new constitution is crafted. Morsi decreed that the parliament elected late last fall continue to meet until a new one was elected. It also gives Egypt two national legislatures at the same time, the military and the civilian. So he is trying to steal third base. Moustafa: Don't call the SCC's decision on parliament a dissolution. Tamir Mousfata weighs in with an interesting comment on the headline of this NYT story on the scuffle over the dissolution of parliament: "Egypt’s Military and President Escalate Their Power Struggle". He writes in a comment to the story: The headline for this article is incorrect and terribly misleading.
The Supreme Constitutional Court ruling on June 14 did not disband parliament, it only invalidated part of the election law. It was the military that disbanded parliament as an opportunistic move, but it is not the role of an unelected junta to dissolve parliament. Moustafa is Associate Professor at Simon Fraser University and the author of a book that speaks to the heart of the matter: The Struggle for Constitutional Power: Law, Politics, and Economic Development in Egypt. Unfortunately he did not think through the politics very well here, and may lose this battle. Confusion overshadows decision to elect Egypt's president before constitution Confusion overshadows decision to elect Egypt's president before constitution Legal experts claim that the government's decision to draft a new constitution before presidential elections conflicts with the amendments approved by a popular referendum in March Salma Shukrallah, Tuesday 3 Jan 2012 A woman shows her inked finger after casting her vote in a constitution referendum at a school in Cairo, 19 March, 2011 (Photo: Reuters/Asmaa Waguih) Egypt’s Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Mohamed Attia declared on Sunday that the presidential elections will be held only after a new constitution is drafted and approved.
While Attia’s statements clarified the confusion over what steps will follow the parliament’s formation, it has left many wondering to what degree such a decision is in harmony with the results of the constitutional referendum held on 19 March, which left many assuming presidential elections will be held before the constitution is finalised. Short link: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood wants quick constitutional amendments | FaithWorld. (Khairat el Shater at Tahrir Square in Cairo March 4, 2011/Mohamed Abd El-Ghany) Egypt needs to start functioning again and prevent army rule from dragging on too long, the Muslim Brotherhood said, calling for the swift implementation of constitutional amendments to restart political life. A month after a popular uprising forced President Hosni Mubarak from office, politicians from across the spectrum have begun to debate whether a new constitution is needed to breathe life into political institutions.
The Muslim Brotherhood can rally support quickly and would benefit from a quick election. It says it would take too long to draw up a new constitution that included all parties’ desires, so amending the current one is the only way forward. “Constitutional amendments are the most suitable, not the most ideal solution for this transitional period that cannot drag for too long,” Brotherhood deputy Khairat Shater told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday. Will Egypt Get A New Interim Constitution? - By Nathan J. Brown. Those who specialize in European constitutional thought have often talked about the pouvoir constituant in a manner that often makes others' eyelids droop -- it leads to deeply abstract discussions, drawing heavily from dusty tomes that pepper discussions with French and Latin phrases, about where ultimate authority lies for issuing a constitution.
But if journalists covering Egypt had taken a course in European constitutional thought -- and managed to stay awake -- they may have been a bit more hesitant before rushing out stories suggesting that Egypt is about to issue a "complementary constitutional declaration. " Yes, there were efforts to fill in some of the holes left when the military surprised the country with an interim constitutional declaration a year ago. Yes, the Egyptian press was full of (often un-sourced) trial balloons suggesting the generals were just about to spring another surprise on the nation.
There is some logic to the first claim but none to the second. Writing a New Constitution. In Translation: Egypt's constitutional crisis of consensus. First, a word about the people who make this possible. Our “In Translation” series is brought to you by the good folks at Industry Arabic. If you need anything translated — press articles, specialised reports, academic documents, anything! — I really recommend going to them. I’ve been referring people to them for over a year and heard only great feedback.
They’re fast, professional, can work in all sorts of Arabic dialects and multiple European languages. And even if you need to translate from Arabic to Eskimo, just ask them. You never know. As many readers know, the selection process for Egypt’s constituent assembly — which will write the country’s next constitution by next March at the latest — was decided a week ago. This is a serious issue, and not just for liberals and leftists. Update: Liberal parties have abandoned the nomination of the constituent assembly in protest. Brown_egypt_constitution_webcommentary01. Midnight for the SCAF's Cinderella Story - By Nathan J. Brown.
In the year since Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) drafted and issued its "Constitutional Declaration," the Egyptian political process has followed no consistent political logic. But it has largely followed the declaration's text, which is leading to some results that should have been expected but largely were not. On one critical and controversial issue -- the sequence of constitution writing and presidential elections -- the document was simply silent. However, on another critical and controversial issue it was definitive: who would write and approve the constitution. Observers, and even more, some participants, overlooked the significance of the silent and the definitive provisions -- sensibly enough, since they made little sense. But these odd features have now combined to bring the SCAF's control of the process near an end. First, with regard to sequence, most observers have suspected that the SCAF did have a specific order in mind.
Nathan J. Egypt's SCAF may scrap constitutional council - Middle East. Judicial Turbulence Ahead in Egypt, Fasten Your Seat Belts. Egyptians have been dazed over the past few months by a welter of constitutional controversies, arcane but portentous legal struggles, and momentous judicial rulings reconfiguring the basic elements of their political system. Indeed, they might be forgiven for imagining that they have been transported to Franz Kafka’s dystopian penal colony—their carefully crafted legal machinery, designed to deliver stern but certain justice, has so completely malfunctioned that its gears and devices are incoherently and senselessly destroying the Egyptian body politic. Of course, nothing quite so severe is occurring. Egypt’s transition has survived—and sometimes has even been strengthened by—a series of surprising legal and judicial developments. But confusion still reigns and more surprises may be in store. Egyptians elected a parliament that cannot figure out what its constitutional position is.
For those desperate for certainty or allergic to drama, things could soon get even worse.