Armed and Dangerous: Egyptian Court Gives Military the Vote
Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court stirred controversy with its ruling to grant military officers and soldiers the right to vote.
CAIRO — The Egyptian parliament spent long hours discussing and drafting the political rights law, but the constitutional court caught it off guard.
Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court deemed nine articles in the law to be unconstitutional; most of them can be easily modified to the court's satisfaction, except one that ignited a new, fierce episode of the ongoing conflict between the court and the presidency.
The constitutional court ruled that the armed forces' officers and conscripts must be granted the right to vote, stating that "depriving the officers and personnel of the armed forces and police from exercising their political rights … is a derogation from the public's sovereignty, and a deprivation of [the personnel’s] citizenship rights."
Islamists, who constitute the majority of the parliament, accused the constitutional court of trying to bring the military to authority "through the back door."
