Associated Press
Jun 14, 2012
Hamza Hendawi
CAIRO (AP) — Judges appointed by Hosni Mubarak dissolved the
Islamist-dominated parliament Thursday and ruled his former prime
minister eligible for the presidential runoff election this weekend —
setting the stage for the military and remnants of the old regime to
stay in power.
The politically charged rulings dealt a heavy blow
to the fundamentalist Islamic Brotherhood, with one senior member
calling the decisions a "full-fledged coup," and the group vowed to
rally the public against Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister to serve
under Mubarak.
The decision by the Supreme Constitutional Court
effectively erased the tenuous progress from Egypt's troubled transition
in the past year, leaving the country with no parliament and
concentrating power even more firmly in the hands of the generals who
took over from Mubarak.
Several hundred people gathered in Cairo's
Tahrir Square after the rulings to denounce the action and rally
against Shafiq, the presidential candidate seen by critics as a symbol
of Mubarak's autocratic rule. But with no calls by the Brotherhood or
other groups for massive demonstrations, the crowd did not grow.
Activists
who engineered Egypt's uprising have long suspected that the generals
would try to cling to power, explaining that after 60 years as the
nation's single most dominant institution, the military would be
reluctant to surrender its authority or leave its economic empire to
civilian scrutiny.
Shafiq's rival in the Saturday-Sunday runoff,
Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, said he was unhappy about the
rulings but accepted them.
"It is my duty as the future president
of Egypt, God willing, to separate between the state's authorities and
accept the rulings," the U.S.-trained engineer said in a television
interview. Late Thursday, he told a news conference: "Millions will go
to the ballot boxes on Saturday and Sunday to say 'no' to the tyrants."
Senior
Brotherhood leader and lawmaker Mohammed el-Beltagy was less
diplomatic, saying the judges' action amounted to a "full-fledged coup."
"This
is the Egypt that Shafiq and the military council want and which I will
not accept no matter how dear the price is," he wrote on his Facebook
page.
Equally blunt was another Brotherhood stalwart, lawmaker
Subhi Saleh. "The court, I can say, has handed Egypt to the military
council on a golden platter and free of charge too," he said.
In
last year's parliamentary elections — Egypt's first democratic ones in
generations — the Brotherhood became the biggest party in the
legislature, with nearly half the seats, alongside more conservative
Islamists who took another 20 percent. It is hoping to win the
presidency as well.
The rulings, however, take away the
Brotherhood's power base in parliament and boost Shafiq at a time when
the Islamists are at sharp odds with a wide array of major forces,
including the military, the judiciary and pro-democracy groups behind
the uprising.
The court also derailed the broader transition to democracy, said rights activist Hossam Bahgat.
"The
military placed all powers in its hands. The entire process has been
undermined beyond repair,"
Bahgat said. "They now have the legislative
and the executive powers in their hands and there is a big likelihood
that the military-backed candidate (Shafiq) is going to win. It is a
soft military coup that unfortunately many people will support out of
fear of an Islamist takeover of the state."
On Wednesday, the
military-appointed government gave security forces the right to arrest
civilians for a range of vague crimes such as disrupting traffic and the
economy that would give it a mandate to crack down on protests. Many
saw the move as evidence that the generals aim to stay in power beyond
the July 1 deadline they announced for handing it over to a civilian
president.
All day Thursday, military armored vehicles circulated
through Cairo's streets playing patriotic songs as soldiers passed out
leaflets urging passers-by to vote in the runoff election. Plastered on
the side of their vehicles were posters saying "the army and the people
are one hand."
After the court's decision was announced, a visibly
energized Shafiq spoke at a rally that had the trappings of a victory
celebration. Supporters chanted "We love you, Mr. President," and the
70-year-old candidate blew kisses to them. In his address, he praised
the military and said he hoped for a dramatic change in the makeup of
the next parliament.
"We want a parliament that realistically
represents all segments of the Egyptian people and a civil state whose
borders and legitimacy are protected by our valiant armed forces," said
Shafiq, a longtime friend and self-confessed admirer of Mubarak.
The presidential race has already deeply polarized the country.
Shafiq's
opponents view him as an extension of Mubarak's authoritarian regime.
Morsi's critics fears he and the Brotherhood will turn Egypt into an
Islamic state and curtail freedom. Leftist, liberal and secular forces
who launched the pro-democracy uprising bemoaned the choice, and some
talked of a boycott.
Now they and the Brotherhood accused the military of using the court to change the rules of the game.
In
its ruling, the court said a third of the legislature was elected
illegally, and as a result, "the makeup of the entire chamber is illegal
and, consequently, it does not legally stand."
The explanation
was carried by Egypt's official news agency and confirmed to The
Associated Press by one of the court's judges, Maher Sami Youssef.
The
law governing the parliamentary elections was ruled unconstitutional by
a lower court because it breached the principle of equality when it
allowed party members to contest a third of the seats set aside for
independents. The remaining two-thirds were contested by party slates.
In
a separate ruling, the court said Shafiq could stay in the runoff
election, rejecting a law passed by parliament last month that barred
prominent figures from the old regime from running for office.
Mubarak
was sentenced to life in prison on June 2 for failing to prevent the
killing of some 900 protesters during the uprising. About three dozen
figures from his regime are also in prison, either charged with or
convicted of corruption.
Defenders of the law argued that after a
revolution aimed at removing Mubarak, parliament had a right to prevent
regime members from returning to power. The law's opponents called it
political revenge targeting Shafiq. The court said the law was not based
on "objective grounds" and was discriminatory, violating "the principle
of equality."
"This historic ruling sends the message that the era of score-settling and tailor-made law is over," Shafiq said at his rally.
Now,
elections will have to be organized to choose a new parliament, and the
Brotherhood is in a weaker position than it was during its powerful
showing in the first election, held over three months starting in
November 2011.
After its election victory, the Brotherhood tried
to translate those gains into governing power but was repeatedly stymied
by the military.
At the same time, there has been widespread
public dissatisfaction with the Islamist-led parliament, which many
criticized as ineffective.
The Brotherhood's popularity has also
declined because of moves that critics saw as attempts to monopolize the
political scene and advance its own power. It angered liberals,
leftists and secular Egyptians when it and other Islamists tried to
dominate a parliament-created panel writing a new constitution.
The
panel was dissolved by court order, and a second one was selected by
parliament in a process that was boycotted by liberals who accused the Brotherhood of packing it with Islamists, as they did with the first
one.
The dissolution of parliament now raises the possibility that
the military council could appoint the panel, a step that would fuel
accusations that it is hijacking the process.
The legal adviser of
the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood's political arm, said
the court rulings were "political," lamenting the outgoing legislature
as the country's "only legitimate and elected body."
"They are
hoping to hand it over to Ahmed Shafiq and make him the only legal
authority in the absence of parliament. The people will not accept this
and we will isolate the toppled regime," Mukhtar el-Ashry said in a
posting on the party's website.
A moderate Islamist and a former
presidential candidate, Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, warned that the
pro-democracy groups which engineered the uprising would protest the
court's rulings.
"Those who believe that the millions of young
people will let this pass are fooling themselves," he wrote on his
Twitter account.
Lobna Darwish, an activist and longtime critic of
the military, said the rulings showed the entire electoral process was a
"distraction" from organizing people in neighborhoods to realize the
goals of the uprising.
"The military ended up getting everything and we got nothing," she said.
