A senior Freedom and Justice Party leader has said that the party’s presidential candidate, Mohamed Morsy — who on Sunday was declared Egypt’s new president — would swear in before the Supreme Constitutional Court.
Sobhi Saleh, the former deputy chairman of the People’s Assembly Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, told state-run news agency MENA that swearing in before the court would not mean that Morsy would recognize its recent ruling to disband the assembly.
The court on 14 June ruled that the elections for a third of the seats in the lower house of Parliament were unconstitutional.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued an addendum to the Constitutional Declaration last week. One of the articles stipulated that the new president deliver his oath before the Supreme Constitutional Court.
Earlier news reports had quoted FJP officials and members of Morsy’s electoral campaign as stressing that the new president would be sworn in before Parliament.
Saleh said the new president would not decide on the assembly’s dissolution before the court’s verdict is referred to the Supreme Administrative Court for legal interpretation. He added that if the administrative court approves the verdict, the president would offer it to a popular referendum.
If the court turns down the verdict, Saleh said, the assembly would decide on the fate of seats in question.
Saleh stressed that his party does not object to the court’s verdict, but rather to the way it was implemented, which he described as illegal.
He said the party is negotiating with the ruling military council over its decision to deny MPs entry to the assembly in line with the dissolution verdict, to solve the crisis away from judicial encounters.
Edited translation from MENA
