(CNN) -- Egypt's administrative court has suspended the country's 100-member constitutional assembly, tasked with drafting a new national constitution. But what does that say about the country's progress toward political reform?
More than a year since President Hosni Mubarak was forced to stand down, the outcome of Egypt's "revolution" remains unclear.
The suspension of the constitutional assembly is significant, says Khaled Elgindy, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, because the document it draws up is supposed to be the "fundamental institution of the new Egypt" -- and this throws up questions over its legitimacy.
The row also highlights growing tensions between secular and Islamist groups and the ruling military council, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has not yet handed power to a civilian government.
It had been hoped the new constitution would be ready before presidential elections due in late May, with a run-off vote in June.
But that time frame now seems unlikely, analysts say, opening up the prospect that a new president is elected without a clear constitutional framework by which to govern, or checks on his powers.
That said, whether the assembly as it stood could have produced a consensus draft that would have convincingly won the nation's backing in a referendum is a moot point.
The move by the administrative court in Cairo followed weeks of street protests and objections from many political and civic society groups.
They argued the assembly was dominated by the Islamists -- the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist Nour party, who hold a majority in parliament -- and that as a result it would not draft a constitution that was representative of the country's diverse society, and that Islamic rules would have too much sway.
Several liberal and secular members of the assembly had already withdrawn because of the criticism, as well as the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church and Al-Azhar Institution, one of the most influential Islamic entities.
Posts
