Earlier this evening, the Banha administrative court issued a confusing verdict "annulling" the "decision" to call for the holding of the Egyptian Presidential Elections. But here is the bottom line:
The Elections Will Take Place On Time
The verdict merely canceled article ONE of Decision 5 of 2012 by the Presidential Election Committee (PEC) to "call upon citizens to vote," arguing that only SCAF has the right to issue such a call. However, it leaves the rest of the decision intact, including the dates and procedures for the elections. Even further, controversial article 28 of the Constituent Declaration gives full immunity to the decisions by the PEC against external appeal, so they can (technically) just pretend nothing even happened. And remember that, well, the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court is actually the head of the PEC.
Even if this row escalates tomorrow, SCAF can simply issue a declaration to the effect of calling upon the citizens to go and vote, which might not be a bad idea in order to close any constitutional loopholes, given we are now dealing with the possibility of the annulment of the previous parliamentary elections. And given that elections for Egyptian expatriates actually begin this Friday, Youssef Zada, Egyptian Consul-General in New York, just tweeted that all Egyptian embassies and consulates have been informed that elections will take place "on time."
If your Arabic is anything stronger than "Ahlan ya Habibi," check out this link for some more detail.
Never a dull moment in Egypt.
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