Egypt’s highest court ruled on Sunday that the nation’s Islamist-dominated legislature and constitutional panel were illegally elected, dealing a serious blow to the Islamists’ hold on power and prolonging the political instability that has gripped the country since the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak two years ago.
But the ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court also said that the legislature’s upper house, the only one currently sitting, would not be dissolved until the parliament’s lower chamber is elected later this year or early in 2014.
The same court ruled to dissolve parliament’s lower chamber in June, a move that led to the promotion of the toothless upper chamber, the Shura Council, to becoming a law-making house.
The Shura Council, long derided as nothing more than a talk shop, was elected by about seven percent of the electorate last year.
It was not immediately clear whether the ruling on the 100-member constitutional panel would cancel the charter it drafted. The constitution was adopted in a nationwide vote in December with a relatively low turnout of about 35%.
Associated Press
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