The ruling regime in Egypt is preparing to restrict the powers of the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC), which, on Sunday, ruled unconstitutional the law that structured the elections for the Shura Council, according to London-based Al Hayat newspaper.
A panel of legal and constitutional experts is currently examining what amendments could be made to avoid some “obstacles,” said Essam al-Erian, deputy chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. Erian did not disclose the nature of the amendments to the newspaper.
Another leading Brotherhood official, however, told the paper that the changes would, inter alia, remove the court’s authority to scrutinize draft electoral laws before their final approval, and make elected bodies immune to dissolution.
According to the constitution, the court is entitled to scrutinize draft parliamentary laws before they are voted on.
The SCC dissolved in June 2012 the freely elected People’s Assembly, saying that the rules governing the elections were unconstitutional.
That decision initiated a wave of tension between Islamists and the judiciary in general.
The writers of Egypt’s constitution, many of whom were affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, inserted provisions that sought to restrict the power of a number of SCC judges. These articles were criticized by several opposition politicians and advocates of judicial independence.
The official quoted by al-Hayat declined, however, to explain whether the amendments being discussed would affect the current crisis concerning the court’s ruling that keeping members of the military from voting is unconstitutional. He added that these amendments would be subjected to a referendum.
