16th June, 2012
On the day, Egyptians filed out to elect a new president, the ruling military government told parliament on Saturday it has been dissolved and banned its members from entering the house after a court annulled the last legislative poll, official media and a senior MP said.
The Islamist-led parliament received a notice saying that Egypt’s ruling generals had decided “to consider parliament dissolved,” the official MENA news agency reported.
The decision is already being implemented and lawmakers are now barred from entering parliament without prior authorisation, the agency reported.
Essam al-Erian, the deputy head of parliament’s dominant Freedom and Justice party, said parliament received a notice from the military-appointed cabinet saying military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi declared the house dissolved.
The government sent a “fax saying Tantawi dissolved parliament,” he said.
The generals “decided in application of the constitutional court ruling to consider parliament dissolved,” Erian said, reading from the text.
The court on Thursday nullified parliament, saying the electoral law that oversaw last winter’s election was unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood has accused Egypt’s military of seeking to monopolise power by disbanding the Islamist-dominated parliament and demanded a referendum on the decision.
“Constant threats to dissolve parliament, elected with the will of 30 million Egyptians, confirm the military council’s desire to monopolise power,” the Brotherhood’s political arm said in a statement.
“Dissolving the elected parliament must go to a fair referendum,” it added, after the military notified parliament that it has been dissolved in accordance with a court ruling on Thursday.