CAIRO (AA) – Interim Egyptian President Adly Mansour issued Friday a constitutional declaration, dissolving the Shura Council, the upper house of parliament, as well as naming a new intelligence chief.
The two-article declaration dissolved the Islamist-dominated upper house of the parliament, which had the legislative authority since the dissolution of parliament months ago.
It also named Mohamed Ahmed Farid as new intelligence chief, replacing Mohammad Raafat Shehata who was appointed earlier by the interim president as his security advisor.
The presidency is expected to issue another constitutional declaration within the next couple of days.
Sources earlier told the Anadolu Agency that the constitutional declaration would give Mansour power to legislate. He was sworn in on Thursday under an army roadmap which ousted Mohammad Morsi.
It would address the formation of a government of technocrats with broad authorities and a special panel to work on amending the constitution which has been temporarily suspend by the army.
The panel will have three months to agree on the amendments from the day of its formation and the proposed amendments would be put to referendum.
Parliamentary and presidential elections, to be fully supervised by the judiciary, will not be held before amending the constitution.
The interim phase outlined in the constitutional declaration is expected to take no less than a year and half, according to the sources.
