Egypt’s newly elected President Mohamed Morsi has ordered the country’s dissolved parliament to resume its legislative work.
According to Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency (MENA), Morsi’s decree came on Sunday, rejecting the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court’s ruling that said the country’s parliamentary elections about 7 months ago was unconstitutional.
The Egyptian president also called for holding new parliamentary elections within 60 days of the ratification of the new constitution for the North African state.
On June 14, Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the parliament, ruling that one third of the parliamentary seats were “illegitimate.”
Press TV has conducted an interview with Waleed el-Hadad, member of the Muslim Brotherhood and also the Freedom and Justice Party from the Egyptian capital city of Cairo to further discuss the issue.
The following is a rough transcript of the Interview.
Press TV: Mr. Hadad, first of all can you please elaborate a bit more on this decision, taken by Mohamed Morsi [newly elected Egyptian President], which goes against the ruling of the Constitutional Court in Egypt?
El-Hadad: Yes, we are all honored by the decree from President Mohamed Morsi, today it is one of the largest, happiness days for the Egyptian people, now we have returned our will again, more than 30 million [people] have voted for the parliament and now we are returning our will again by the decree of Dr. Mohamed Morsi and now Dr. Saad El-Katatny, the speaker of the people’s assembly, the House. He made a statement to thank and to welcome the decree from President Mohamed Morsi.
I think now the parliament will start, very fast to make their meetings and this decision is a presidential decision because now Dr. Mohamed Morsi, has the authority as an elected president and he has the power, now, to make any decisions, managerial decisions actually, or administrative decisions.
There is no relation between this decision and the last one of the Supreme Constitutional Court, so now we are honored by this decree from President Mohamed Morsi.
Press TV: Right, Mr. Hadad, but where does this leave the independence and authority of the judiciary in Egypt if the president can simply override its decisions by a decree?
El-Hadad: No, we can not call this override for the judicial decisions because this is an administrative decision from the president and although he has another statement or another article in this decree which is, there is another election for the parliament after sixty days from approving the new constitution.
So this is the authority and this is a decree from the president and there is no override of any judicial decisions, actually we are talking about the executive authority of the president and there is the legislation which is currently with the parliament again.
There are three important authorities or powers: the first one is the executive power which is currently with the president and the judicial power which is with the court and we have the legislation which is currently with the parliament, and the SCAF [Supreme Council of Armed Forces] has no power.
Right now they are dealing with the SCAF as…, we are proud actually with the armed forces but when we are talking about SCAF, they must now return to their positions in order to save our security, but they have to leave all the power to the president.
By this decree by President Dr. Mohamed Morsi, now he is talking with all the people that we have a legislative power with the parliament and the executive power with the president and in a few hours, maybe tomorrow maximum, he will announce the prime minister.
Press TV: How is SCAF responding to this? I understand that the new president Mohamed Morsi wants to work hand in hand with the SCAF, but how are they responding to this, considering they had taken over the legislative authority in the country and they still wield a veto power over any constitution that may be presented?
El-Hadad: They have to accept the presidential decree, because it is from the upper leader of our country who is the elected president, Dr. Mohamed Morsi now is the president of all Egyptian people.
The SCAF or the Constitutional Court or any other entity has to stick to their decision and they have to accept it and now we can see there is some protests in Tahrir Sq, they are welcoming the decree from President Mohamed Morsi and I think that the Supreme Council of Armed Forces, they, will accept and this issue will pass very smoothly because we have another pattern, actually between the president, street, SCAF, in order to gather all entities under the same umbrella which is the importance of Egypt now and how to make the stability for our country, how to develop our economy. It is a big mission for all entities in order to have the development.
The clear position of the Egyptian people ends in returning Egypt’s leading position in the Middle East and in the world.
Press TV: And also Mr. Haddad before the lower house of parliament was dissolved, a hundred member committee was supposed to be formed by the parliament to choose people who will further work on the constitution and present Egypt with a new constitution. Is that now going to go ahead?
El-Hadad: The Constitutional Assembly has been formed three weeks ago and they are now working in drafting the constitution. They elected their chief and also they have the secretary general and they have different divisions for drafting the first civil constitution in Egypt.
They will work very hard in order to have the first civil constitution, which will be the choice of the people, not the choice of any entity like SCAF or others.
Now we will have the constitution, returned from our people and to serve our people. The Constitutional Assembly will continue their work and the will have, maybe in one or two months, the first draft for an Egyptian constitution.
Presstv
