It is widely believed the Surpreme Court in Egypt is in the hands of the old guard so their ruling that parliament should be dissolved and new elections called just two days before voting begins in the runoff for president appears to be a pre-emptive strike against the Muslim Brotherhood by the military.

If they are seeking confrontation, they are going to get all that they can handle.

Reuters:

A constitutional court ruling on Thursday means that the whole of the lower house of Egypt's parliament will be dissolved and a new election will have to be held, the court's head Farouk Soltan told Reuters by telephone after the ruling was issued.

"The ruling regarding parliament includes the dissolution of the lower house of parliament in its entirety because the law upon which the elections were held is contrary to rules of the constitution," he said, speaking two days before another election to pick a new president.

Soltan said the ruling was binding on all institutions of state, adding that it would be up to the executive to call for the new election that he said would take place.

Even though the court only ruled on the constitutionality of about a third of the elections for members of parliament, AP is reporting the high court dissolved the entire body:

Egypt's highest court has ordered the country's Islamist-dominated parliament dissolved, saying its election about six months ago was unconstitutional.

The Supreme Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that a third of the legislature was elected illegally. As a result, it says in its explanation of the ruling, "the makeup of the entire chamber is illegal and, consequently, it does not legally stand."

The explanation was carried by Egypt's official news agency and confirmed to The Associated Press by one of the court's judges, Maher Sami Youssef. The ruling means that new elections for the entire parliament will have to be held.

I can think of no other development that would enrage the Egyptians more than the court dissolving Parliament two days before the presidential vote. The court also ruled that Ahmad Shafiq, former Mubarak era prime minister, could stay in the presidential race. It can not be ruled out that the two rulings are connected and may be a bid by the military to slice the Brotherhood off at the knees by destroying their base in Parliament and denying them the presidency at the same time.

The countdown to the explosion has commenced. The question is, will anything be salvaged from the wreckage?