CAIRO — Days before candidates were officially due to apply for the parliamentary elections, and while the country was bracing for one of the most decisive weeks in its modern history, Cairo’s Administrative Court decided things were not complex, tense or beguiling enough as they were.
The court issued a decree overturning President Mohammed Morsi’s decision to call elections at the end of April, referring the just amended electoral law to the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) for review. At the heart of the dispute, at least officially, was the Islamist-dominated Shura Council’s (the still-standing upper house of parliament) not returning of the law to the SCC for a secondary review after rushed amendments. Those amendments were also accused by the opposition of keeping many of the protested aspects of the law since its earlier days as a draft, even allegedly gerrymandering districts, and has been a major source of political contention.
