Former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik.


  • NEW: Egypt's interim military leaders declare full legislative authority
  • Egypt's highest court declares parliament invalid
  • The Supreme Court rules Ahmed Shafik can run for president
  • A runoff vote is set for this weekend between Mohamed Morsi and Shafik



Cairo (CNN) -- Egypt's highest court on Thursday declared the parliament invalid, and the country's interim military rulers declared full legislative authority, triggering a new level of chaos and confusion in the country's leadership.
The Supreme Constitutional Court also ruled that a former member of President Hosni Mubarak's regime may run in a presidential election runoff this weekend.
The ruling on parliament means that it must be dissolved, state TV reported. An Egyptian constitutional law expert told CNN that following the court's decision, a political decision will be made about what steps to take next.
Parliament had been in session for just over four months.
The court found that all articles making up the law that regulated parliamentary elections are invalid, said Showee Elsayed, a constitutional lawyer.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, in control of the country since Mubarak's ouster, announced that it now has full legislative power and will announce a 100-person assembly that will write the country's new constitution by Friday.
Due to a separate decision by the high court Thursday, Former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik will be allowed to run in this weekend's runoff election.
The court rejected a law barring former regime members from running in the election.
Shafik was the last prime minister under Mubarak. The runoff Saturday and Sunday pits him against Mohamed Morsi, head of the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm.
Riot police and military personnel, some in armored vehicles, were outside the court ahead of the rulings. Military intelligence officers were also present.
After the ruling about Shafik was announced, a crowd of citizens shouted their disapproval. Military police moved to block the road in front of the court -- a major Cairo artery.
Protesters outside the court chanted slogans against the former Mubarak regime and Shafik.
Ahmed Yousef, a protester with the April 6 Movement, said: "The military wants Shafik, the court will not rule against him -- but we don't care, we will continue to fight against him."
"Those who don't want to see a return to the oppression of the past ... are very unhappy with this ruling," CNN's Ben Wedeman said from Cairo.
Many voters were unhappy with both choices in the runoff.
Morsi and Shafik are the most non-revolutionary of all candidates and represent "two typically tyrannical institutions: the first (Morsi) being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the second (Shafik) a senior official of the former regime," Sonya Farid wrote for Al Arabiya earlier.
"Everything about Egypt's revolution has been unexpected, and the first-round results in the country's first-ever competitive presidential elections are no different," Omar Ashour, director of Middle East Studies at the University of Exeter and a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution in Doha, Qatar, wrote for Project Syndicate previously.
Egypt's voters "overwhelmingly chose the revolution over the old regime ... but their failure to unite on a single platform directly benefited Shafik," Ashour said.
The rulings come a day after Egypt's military-led government imposed a de facto martial law, extending the arrest powers of security forces.
Egypt's Justice Ministry issued a decree Wednesday granting military officers the authority to arrest civilians, state-run EGY News reported.
The mandate remains in effect until a new constitution is introduced, and could mean those detained could remain in jail for that long, the agency said.
Lawyers for the Muslim Brotherhood filed a court appeal Thursday against the decree.
A decades-old emergency law that critics said gave authorities broad leeway to arrest citizens and hold them indefinitely without charges expired on May 31.
The political scene in Egypt remains tense after the parliament failed to agree on a committee to write a new constitution defining the powers of the president and the parliament.
CNN's Josh Levs and Mohamed Fadel Fahmy contributed to this report.