Egypt’s top court yesterday paved the way for the ruling military to assume power by annulling the Islamist-led Parliament while allowing Hosni Mubarak’s last premier to stand in this weekend’s presidential election.

The rulings, two days ahead of the fiercely contested election between the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Mursi and the ousted Mr Mubarak’s top official Ahmed Shafiq, could throw the country into further political disarray.

A military source said the court’s ruling technically meant that the military, in power since Mr Mubarak’s ouster last year, would assume legislative powers.

The head of the constitut-ional court, Faruq Sultan, said that the decision “voids” Parliament and must be respected by the authorities.

The court based its decision on what it said were illegal articles in the law governing parliamentary elections, which reserved a third of seats for directly voted independents, or party members, and the rest for party lists.

Egypt’s military decided on a complex electoral system in which voters cast ballots for party lists which made up two thirds of parliament and also for individual candidates for the remaining seats in the lower house.

These were meant to be “independents,” but members of political parties were subsequently allowed to run, giving the powerful Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) an advantage. The court also ruled that a law to bar senior former regime officials such as Mr Shafiq from standing in elections was unconstitutional.