The founder of the Constitution Party Mohamed ElBaradei said on twitter on Sunday "the verdict of the High Constitutional Court is an expected outcome of the political bullying that toppled legitimacy and led to the state of collapse we are living in."

"Back to square one: Shura council and the constituent assembly declared unconstitutional. Consensus on new constitutional frame work only way out," he wrote in English on his Twitter account on Sunday.

ElBaradei called for a new constituent assembly and a new election law - both to be ratified by the people in a popular referendum.

Earlier on Sunday, the High Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional an article regulating the election of independent MPs to the Shura Council, the upper house of parliament.

Two thirds of the council's elected members were elected from party lists; the remaining third of elected members were independent.

According to the ruling, the Shura Council will be dissolved after a new House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament, is formed.

The court also ruled that the law governing the composition of the Constituent Assembly, the body tasked with drafting Egypt's new constitution, is unconstitutional.