Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Boycotts ‘Advisory Council’ After Junta Moves to Sideline Parliament

Military Vows to Retain Authority Over Civilian Govt

In a statement issued earlier today the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood announced that their political faction, the Freedom and Justice Party, will boycott the “constitutional advisory council” being created by the military junta, a move aimed to protest the junta’s effort to remove drafting the new constitution from parliament.

The junta announced yesterday that they considered the new parliament not to be sufficiently “representative” of the will of the voters, even though the voters actually voted for them, and insisted that instead they would appoint the council themselves to oversee penning the new constitution.

Instead leaders from the military council of rulers say that they will retain exclusive executive authority over the civilian government, and will ensure that the military’s budget, a significant portion of the overall economy of the heavily militarized state, is completely independent of parliamentary oversight.

The Freedom and Justice Party won the largest plurality in the parliament, at least in the first round of voting, and has made their primary goal moving the country out of military control and toward civilian rule.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.