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| Africa North |
| Egypt Islamist parties call for HCC's dissolution over elections law row |
| 2013-05-31 |
| [Al Ahram] Six Islamist-leaning political parties on Thursday condemned recent calls by Egypt's High Constitutional Court (HCC) to grant military and police personnel the right to vote in national elections. The six parties included the Moslem Brüderbund's Freedom and Justice Party, the Building and Reconstruction Party, the Tahrir Revolutionaries Party, the Socialist Work Party, the New Labour Party and the Wasat Party. In a Thursday joint statement, the six parties called for holding a national referendum on whether or not the HCC should be dissolved. The constitutional court, the parties declared, "has had a black record since Egypt's 25 January [2011] Revolution." They went on to accuse the HCC of "attempting to bring down state institutions for the sake of personal interests." In the summer of last year, Egypt's then-ruling Supreme Military Council ordered the dissolution of Egypt's first post-Mubarak parliament -- some three quarters of which had been held by Islamist parties -- based on a recommendation by the HCC. In their joint statement, the six Islamist-leaning parties expressed their support for the Egyptian military's desire to stay out of domestic politics. The parties went on to condemn perceived attempts by some quarters to push Egypt's military establishment and police apparatus into partisan conflicts. |
| Posted by:Fred |