A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Friday, June 15, 2012

SCAF Tells Parliament to Shut; Takes Legislative ande Budget Authority

Anyone who was clinging to a lingering hope that SCAF would reject or overrule yesterday's court rulings can take off the rose-colored glasses now: SCAF has told Parliament to close and  will take legislative and budgetary authority to itself,.

Ahram Online has found a constitutional expert to say SCAF can't take back legislative powers: it's unconstitutional. But the Supreme Constitutional Court just said Parliament was unconstitutional, And then there's the question for the ages: How can anything be unconstitutional when you haven't written the constitution yet?

No, this is exactly what it looks like. The elections will be held and the Muslim Brotherhood is running, but even they now realize that the deck is stacked in favor of Shafiq. It remains to play out the election itself, and if Morsi wins then we can reconsider the question. But even then, absent a Parliament, SCAF isn't going back to the barracks anytime soon,

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