Egypt's Ruling Military Council Decides: Constitution before Election

Both ends of the political spectrum feared the present constitution would set the stage for a repeat of the strongpresidential structure that allowed Hosni Mubarak to rule with an iron fist for more than 30-years. Nevertheless, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the body that has ruled since Mubarak’s overthrow, is not without an agenda as it seeks to retain influence over security issues in subsequent governments – a goal arguably supported by controlling the constitutional process. SCAF called a halt to the activities of the parliamentary committee assembled to draft the new constitution when the Islamist lawmakers effectively  squeezed liberal parliamentarians out of the process, the Media Line reports.

AP reports that all the three main candidates disqualified by the election committee , Omar Suleiman,Kharait al- Shater and Hazem Abu Ismail have all filed  appeals against the decision today.