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| Candidate Ahmed Shafiq is the beneficiary of an Egyptian court ruling that appears to have cleared his path to the presidency. |
CAIRO—And checkmate. Game over?
Thursday afternoon, 98 degrees in the
spring shade in Cairo, three days before the final presidential runoff
election, and the entire Islamist-led Parliament has just been dissolved
by a court ruling.
The decision included the invalidation of
the temporary constitution and the committee assigned to write the new
one, and it returns all legislative powers to the military.
This “soft coup,” as it is now being
called, is based on rulings that the election of one-third of the
Parliament’s seats and the Political Disenfranchisement Law, which was
proposed to disallow the candidacy of members of the deposed government,
were both unconstitutional. The lower and upper houses of the
Parliament are now null and void, as is the constitution committee.
The original law passed by the Parliament
banning members of former President Hosni Mubarak’s government from
candidacy was intended to prevent the powerful elite network of his
regime from reinstating his government. This law was appealed and set
aside to enable Ahmed Shafiq—a Mubarak loyalist, a former air force
general, a former minister of aviation and a onetime interim prime
minister—to run. Considered for years a possible alternative to
Mubarak’s son as successor in an autocratic, one-party system, Shafiq
was promoted as a military strongman who could reimpose order and save
the country from Islamist theocracy.
CAIRO—And checkmate. Game over?
Thursday afternoon, 98 degrees in the
spring shade in Cairo, three days before the final presidential runoff
election, and the entire Islamist-led Parliament has just been dissolved
by a court ruling.
The decision included the invalidation of
the temporary constitution and the committee assigned to write the new
one, and it returns all legislative powers to the military.
This “soft coup,” as it is now being
called, is based on rulings that the election of one-third of the
Parliament’s seats and the Political Disenfranchisement Law, which was
proposed to disallow the candidacy of members of the deposed government,
were both unconstitutional. The lower and upper houses of the
Parliament are now null and void, as is the constitution committee.
The original law passed by the Parliament
banning members of former President Hosni Mubarak’s government from
candidacy was intended to prevent the powerful elite network of his
regime from reinstating his government. This law was appealed and set
aside to enable Ahmed Shafiq—a Mubarak loyalist, a former air force
general, a former minister of aviation and a onetime interim prime
minister—to run. Considered for years a possible alternative to
Mubarak’s son as successor in an autocratic, one-party system, Shafiq
was promoted as a military strongman who could reimpose order and save
the country from Islamist theocracy. READ MORE
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