Leaders and MPs from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafi Nour Party attacked the verdict issued Thursday by the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) rejecting the Political Isolation Law and dissolving Parliament.
They pointed out that the two rulings open the door for the return of the former regime and called on the people to apply the isolation law themselves by not voting for Ahmed Shafiq, ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister. Shafiq is competing against the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsy in the presidential runoff in two days.
The Political Isolation Law, which was passed by Parliament and approved by the ruling military council, barred anyone who served as Mubarak’s prime minister or vice president, or who held high-ranking positions in the now-dissolved National Democratic Party, in the ten years leading up to his ouster from holding public office.
MP Mohamed Emad al-Din of the FJP said that “the rulings on the unconstitutionality of the isolation law and the invalidity of one-third of Parliament are political verdicts, and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is responsible for them.”
The court ruled that one-third of Parliament had been elected unconstitutionally because party members competed for seats that were reserved for independent candidates.
“There is no entity that is entitled by the Constitutional Declaration to dissolve Parliament,” said Mohsen Radi, an individual seat winner and member of the FJP.
Muslim Brotherhood attorney Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud assured that, “Parliament is committed to the final rulings of the judiciary and is awaiting the arrival of the president to decide on the dissolution of Parliament in light of his powers in the new constitution.”
However, the court ruling stipulated that the verdict is final, and no additional procedures are required for it to be implemented.
“The SCC does not have jurisdiction to consider the isolation law,” Abdel Maqsoud added. He said that the rejection of the law is in Shafiq’s interest and urged voters not to support him.
The Brotherhood said that they had no intention of withdrawing Morsy from the presidential race.
Nour Party spokesperson Mohamed Nour accused the judiciary of being implicated in political power play. “The judiciary has become a dagger in the back of the revolution and the revolutionaries. What is happening now is a plan to cause the revolution to collapse and the country to return to the pre-revolution era,” he said.
“The independence of the judiciary should have been established at the outbreak of the revolution,” he added.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
