JURIST - Paper Chase: Egypt court to rule on constitutionality of political isolation law

[JURIST] The Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt [official website] said Wednesday that it will rule on the constitutionality of the proposed amendments to the political isolation law on June 14. The Political isolation law was passed in 2011 and had the purpose of blocking high members of the regime of ousted former president Hosni Mubarak [Al Jazeera profile, JURIST news archive] from holding a position in office. The amendments, which were approved by the Parliament and later by the ruling military council, will have the effect of banning individuals who served as vice president or prime minister during Mubarak's 10-year regime before he resigned in February of last year. This will also affect individuals who served as president or secretary general of Mubarak's now-dissolved [JURIST report] National Democratic Party. Until the court rules on the constitutionality issue, the amendments to the law cannot be implemented.

Egypt has still issues surrounding the constitutionality of election process as well as the formation of the 100-member panel responsible for drafting the country's new constitution. In April, Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court suspended the work of the panel after it ruled in favor [JURIST report] of the challenge against the constitutionality of the panel's formation. The appointment of the panel members had been heavily debated between the parties of parliament who have differing opinions on who should be included in the assembly after it was initially discussed in March after the voting system in the parliamentary elections was declared [JURIST report] unconstitutional.