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Armed and Dangerous: Egyptian Court Gives Military the Vote

Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court stirred controversy with its ruling to grant military officers and soldiers the right to vote.
Street vendors sell refreshments in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court in Maadi, south of Cairo December 2, 2012. Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court postponed its work indefinitely on Sunday after a protest by Islamists sympathetic to President Mohamed Mursi outside its headquarters.     REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh  (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CRIME LAW FOOD) - RTR3B4NE

CAIRO — The Egyptian parliament spent long hours discussing and drafting the political rights law, but the constitutional court caught it off guard.

Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court deemed nine articles in the law to be unconstitutional; most of them can be easily modified to the court's satisfaction, except one that ignited a new, fierce episode of the ongoing conflict between the court and the presidency.

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