Egypt protests: army threatens to dissolve parliament and suspend constitution

Egypt’s armed forces will suspend the constitution and dissolve parliament if talks between the government and the opposition fail to reach a settlement by Wednesday, the country’s military sources have warned, according to the Telegraph.

The drastic measures, which would effectively push the country back towards military rule, are contained in a draft political roadmap that will the army will unroll if the current political deadlock is not resolved.

On Monday, the army gave the government and the opposition 48 hours to reach a political accommodation, in a bid to take the heat out of violent anti-government protests.

If that does not happen, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, known by its acronym of SCAF, will step in, military sources told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday evening.

Dissolving the parliament would be a direct challenge to the power of President Mohamed Morsi, whose followers currently dominate the elected body. However, while that aspect of the military’s roadmap might be welcomed by the opposition , the prospect of the military dismantling central elements of the civilian government would no doubt be greeted with alarm.

The military insists that it has no interest in running the country, having proved deeply unpopular during the period in which it did so while manning a caretaker government after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak,.

The sources told Reuters the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) was still discussing details of the plan, which they said could be changed based on political developments and consultations.

Meanwhile, Egyptian opposition groups have nominated a prominent liberal, Mohamed ElBaradei, to represent them in crisis talks with the country’s leadership.

The army had thrown open all possibilities on Monday evening with its statement giving the president and the opposition 48 hours to present a way out of the country’s political impasse. It said it would otherwise present its own “road map” – interpreted widely as either a return to military rule, at least in the short term, or an imposition of fresh elections against the president’s will.

The announcement was ecstatically cheered by anti-Morsi protesters in Tahrir Square.

The leading opposition parties have been refusing to negotiate terms with the president since a new constitution was rushed through last November.

M.D