Parliament meets in Egypt as court slams new president
Offline
Parliament meets in Egypt as court slams new president
CAIRO -- Hours after Egypt's Parliament met in defiance of a court order, the country's highest court ruled Tuesday that President Mohammed Morsi had ordered the legislative
body back in session illegally, a political tit for tat that underscored how the ruling military council, the court and Egypt's first democratically elected president are
embroiled in a public battle for power.
Thousands took to the streets in support of Morsi's order reinstating the lower house of Parliament, and celebrated after the legislative body's first session was over. Morsi on
Sunday had ordered it to meet despite an earlier court ruling that dissolved the legislative body, which is dominated by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group
Morsi was a member of for decades until he fulfilled a campaign promise to leave the group after his election.
The parliamentary speaker, Saad el Katatni, held a symbolic session that lasted less than an hour, and argued in a brief speech that Morsi's order hadn't contravened the court.
"The Parliament knows quite well its duties and rights and doesn't interfere in the judiciary's work," he said.
Shortly afterward, the court ruled that Morsi had acted illegally in calling the Parliament into session, sharpening a confrontation that has existed since the three-decade
regime of former President Hosni Mubarak, who resigned in February 2011 after popular protests. The court and the military council, made up of Mubarak appointees, are facing off
against Islamist parties led by the Muslim Brotherhood, long suppressed by Mubarak but big victors in the recent parliamentary and presidential elections.
- Login to post comments
http://www.theage.com.au/world/libyans-buck-islamist-trend-as-moderates-surge-ahead-20120710-21tvx.html
AS RESULTS for Libya's first democratic election continued to trickle in, a decisive victory for the broad coalition of moderates over the Muslim Brotherhood appeared increasingly likely.
Signalling a determination to put Muammar Gaddafi's brutal 42-year rule behind them, restore security and rebuild critical services, Libyans set aside tribal and regional differences to unite behind the party of former interim prime minister Mahmoud Jibril, a US-educated political scientist.
In rejecting the largest group running in the elections, the Muslim Brotherhood's Justice and Construction Party, Libyans also countered the trend of Islamist governments taking power in the aftermath of the Arab Spring revolutions, as they did in Tunisia and Egypt.
But do not call Mr Jibril's National Forces Alliance - a coalition of 55 parties - ''liberals'', the 60-year-old has warned.
He describes the NFA as a ''moderate Islamic movement''.The results released by Libya's election commission reveal a victory for the NFA in two of three electorates: the western-Tripoli suburb of Janzur overwhelmingly favoured the NFA, with 6798 votes to the Muslim Brotherhood's 2423, while the town of Zlitan, west of Misrata, also went Mr Jibril's way, 19,220 to the Brotherhood's 5626.
So far, only Misrata has turned its back on Mr Jibril, electing its own candidate from the Union for Homeland party, according to Libya's High National Election Commission.
Small outbreaks of violence continued yesterday. The Sahaba mosque in Derna, near Benghazi, was partially destroyed by a bomb, while two Libyan journalists were kidnapped while reporting in the former Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid, prompting groups of Misrata militia to attempt to secure their release. Full election results are not expected to be released until tomorrow.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/14/libya-jibril-coalition-election-victory
Mahmoud Jibril, leader of the moderate pro-business National Forces Alliance that swept to a landslide victory against the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya's elections, is trying to assemble a ruling coalition this weekend, even as the last votes remain to be counted.
Election officials confirmed on Saturday that with 98% of votes from last weekend's election, the first in Libya for 48 years, the NFA and its allies won 17 of the 20 "super constituencies", with the Muslim Brotherhood's Justice and Construction party capturing only one.
With the Justice and Construction party baffled at its failure to repeat the successes of Muslim Brotherhood parties in Egypt and Tunisia – fellow participants in last year's Arab spring – Jibril repeated calls for a grand coalition to rebuild Libya, but Brotherhood officials remain bitter.
Jibril, a US-educated economist, was once head of economic planning for the former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, working with his son, Saif al-Islam, on a reformist constitution that was never implemented.
"Why were we put in prison in Libya and Jibril was working with Saif?" said Justice and Construction campaign manager El-Amin Belhaj. "Libyans do not want Sharia [law]. They want an economy."
But for the time being Libyans have turned their back on a party that seeks to mix religion and politics. "We want a guy who can manage," said Baha, a 20-year-old Tripoli medical student. "With the Brotherhood, the problem is we are already Islamic. We don't need someone to tell us how to be Islam."
With his mixture of moderate Islam and business knowhow, Jibril, 60, must still deal with the paradox that his support came evenly from communities that were both pro- and anti-Gaddafi in last year's war. "The debate is going to move away from Islamists-versus-liberals to former regime-versus-rebels," said Maryann Maguire, director of Intercultures, a UK-based risk management business.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/46865.aspx
Sheikh Yasser Borhami, leading member of Egypt's Salafist Calling and co-founder of the Salafist Nour Party, said in a televised interview on Tuesday that newly-inaugurated President Mohamed Morsi had promised him – despite recent promises to the contrary – that he would appoint neither a woman nor a Coptic-Christian to the position of vice president.
Speaking on the Hayat 2 television channel, Borhami also stated that Morsi, along with Muslim Brotherhood Deputy Chairman Khairat El-Shater, had promised to amend Article 2 of the constitution so as to make Islamic Law the main source of legislation in Egypt.
Article 2 of Egypt's 1971 constitution states that "the principles of Islamic Law" represent the main source of the legislation. Egyptian Islamist parties and groups, however, want to see "Islamic Law" alone – not merely the principles thereof – representing the "main source" of legislation in Egypt.
Egypt's secular forces, meanwhile, want the controversial article to be left as is.
In the Tuesday interview, Borhami said that Morsi had told him and other Salafist sheikhs that he would appoint women and Christians only as "advisors" and not as vice presidents.
The Salafist Calling and the Nour Party both endorsed moderate-Islamist Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh in the first round of Egypt's recent presidential poll. In last month's hotly-contested second round, both Salafist groups endorsed Morsi's bid against Mubarak-era premiere Ahmed Shafiq.
A group of influential Salafist sheikhs, including Borhami, met with Morsi last Thursday at the presidential palace.