The chairman of the legal committee of the Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt has said that presidential powers will allow Mohammed Morsi to annul the military decision to dissolve parliament. Mukhtar El-Ashry added that the decision by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) only applied to one-third of parliamentary seats.
Although the general interpretation of the SCAF decree is that the whole parliament is dissolved, a constitutional “defect” means that the decision is “tainted”, which could lead to its full cancellation. This coincides with Dr. Mohamed Saad Katatni’s denial that he has submitted a petition to the new president. The head of the Egyptian parliament claims that this is simply untrue. Dr Katatni pointed out that the administrative court has determined the 9th July as the date on which it will look into this matter, so “there is no logical reason” to submit a legal petition.
A number of MPs have, however, filed lawsuits before the administrative court to challenge SCAF’s executive decision to dissolve the Egyptian parliament based on the constitutional court’s ruling on the invalidity of some articles of the law governing parliamentary procedures and governance.