Egyptian parliament dissolved.

After a long electoral process the results have been summarily negated by the Egyptian high court. The court ruled that a third of the seats involved invalid results. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces then stepped in and announced that if one part of the parliamentary representatives are illegal then the whole parliament must be dissolved. So the military are back to ruling on their own. This is bound to provoked even more protest and divisions within Egypt.

The Egyptian constitutional court ruled against a law that would have barred the former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq from running in the presidential runoff. Shafiq said:"The message of this historic verdict is that the era of political score settling has ended," "The constitutional court has confirmed my right to participate in the election and reinforced the legitimacy of this election." Rather it seems the court is trying to facilitate the continuation of the old guard rule.

At the same time as these court rulings the justice ministry that gives the military police and intelligence officers power to arrest people suspected of crimes and restoring many of the powers given to police under the emergency laws that had only expired two weeks ago. The decree would apply to destruction of property obstructing traffic and resisting orders. The decree seems designed to crack down on protesters among other things. The decree is to remain in effect until a new constitution is drafted. For more see this article.