Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) decision on Tuesday to refer a lawsuit against Egypt's Islamist-led Constituent Assembly – tasked with drafting a new constitution – to the High Constitutional Court (HCC) has heated up the ongoing debate on the fate of the constitution-drafting body. However, the ruling has also theoritically given assembly members more time to work out their differences over the contents of constitutional articles before the draft charter is put before popular referendum.
Brotherhood lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maqsoud, for his part, expressed satisfaction with the SAC's recent decision to refer the case to the HCC, asserting that the move would give the Constituent Assembly "enough time to finish its work."
Ahmed Said, head of the liberal Free Egyptians party, on the other side, accused the Muslim Brotherhood of using the situation "to confuse the political scene in order to earn more time until it can pass a constitution that doesn't represent the Egyptian people."
He went on to warn against any Brotherhood "attempts to pressure the judiciary for the sake of wasting time and exhausting those political forces that oppose the Constituent Assembly. The assembly's dissolution is only a matter of time."