A five hour negotiation between Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi and the nation’s top judges has failed, with the president’s office issuing a statement reiterating his claims of immunity from judicial review, while maintaining that the power is “temporary.”
The failure was a surprise, as Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki had suggested the two sides were almost certain to come to a compromise, with hints that the two sides would agree Mursi’s power would only cover “sovereign” matters.
Mursi has insisted the edict was meant to protect the constitutional committee, but the judicial council issued a statement blasting today’s statement as a “frail” attempt at justification, and reiterating their own opposition.
In the meantime protests are expected to continue, while the Egyptian military remains the x-factor in the situation, so far avoiding any role in the dispute but having previously had designs of their own of uncheckable power.
While I'm not sympathetic to Mursi or the Brotherhood, I still don't understand why the judges (who are presumably holdovers from the previous regime) have any legitimacy.
So Mursi should disband this judicial council and appoint a new one, not do away with judicial review altogether.
This judicial council lost its legitimacy due to its ludicrous order disbanding the lower house of parliament after the election. There was no basis whatsoever for doing that. In addition, they dropped Ahmed Shafick into the 2nd stage of the presidential race even though he didn't participate in the 1st stage. Their moves at the time were clearly politically motivated in order to try and preserve power of the old regime. So they should be replaced – but the council shouldn't be completely eliminated w/o alternative.