Egypt: Court rejects dissolution of ultraconservative Al-Nour Party

Cairo - Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court rejected a lawsuit that called for the dissolution of the ultra-conservative Salafist El-Nour Party.

Lawyers Rizq Al-Molla and Ahmed El-Shandedy filed the lawsuit complaining that El-Nour Party was created on a religious basis, something proscribed by the 2014 Constitution.

El-Nour Party, spawned after the 2011 uprising as the political arm of the Salafist Call, is the only potent Islamist party that survived as a legal entity following deadly confrontations between Islamists and authorities after the 2013 ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi.

In the 2011–12 Egypt parliamentary elections, the Islamist Bloc led by al‑Nour party received 7,534,266 votes out of a total 27,065,135 correct votes (27.8%). The Islamist Bloc, of which al-Nour was a member, gained 127 of the 498 parliamentary seats contested,second-place after the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. Al‑Nour Party itself won 111 of the 127 seats.

From January 2013 the party gradually distanced itself from President Mohamed Morsi's Brotherhood government, and came to support the  overthrow of Morsi in July 2013 after mass protests against him.
A lawsuit against the party was dismissed on 22 September 2014 because the court indicated it had no jurisdiction.
A case on the dissolution of the party was adjourned until 17 January 2015 and further postponed until 21 February 2015.
 Another court case that was brought forth to dissolve the party was dismissed after the Alexandria Urgent Matters Court ruled on 26 November 2014 that it lacked jurisdiction.
A lawsuit was rejected by the Parties Court and referred back to a lower court because the only entity qualified to argue for the dissolution of a party is the leader of the political parties commission.