This morning the Century published an article on the difficult choice facing Egyptian Christians in this weekend's runoff election for president: should they vote for someone who served at a high level under the pre-revolution strongman president? Or for the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate?

Hours later, this news broke: Egypt's supreme court has called for the dissolution of the parliament's lower house—which is newly rich with Muslim Brotherhood members—effectively stripping the whole parliament of power. In a separate ruling similarly upsetting to many Brotherhood supporters, the court ruled that Ahmed Shafiq—former president Mubarak's prime minister—is in fact eligible to stand for president, despite his role in the old regime.

While the court is seeking new parliamentary elections, the presidential runoff will take place as scheduled. But the BBC writeup ends on this dark note:

Since the fall of Mubarak, Egypt's military has promised to hand power to an elected president by the start of July, but with no constitution and now the prospect of no parliament to write one, the new president is unlikely have his powers defined by the time he comes into office.

Steve Thorngate

The Century managing editor is also a church musician and songwriter.

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