The secretariat of Egypt's People's Assembly on Thursday received an official notification from Egypt's ruling military council to immediately dissolve the lower house of parliament in line with Thursday's High Constitutional Court (HCC) verdict.

According to a source who asked to remain anonymous, the Assembly's secretary-general, Sami Mahran, received the notification, which also prohibits everyone except workers and parliamentary reporters from entering the parliament building.

On Thursday, the secretariat had distributed the work agenda for the week to MPs as the Islamist-led Assembly was set to hold a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the ramifications of the HCC decision.

On Thursday, the HCC declared Egypt's Parliamentary Elections Law – which regulated last year's legislative polls – to be unconstitutional. The verdict could mean that both the People's Assembly and the consultative Shura Council (the upper house of Egypt's parliament) will be dissolved in advance of fresh elections. 

The HCC on Thursday also cleared former Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shafiq to stand in the Egyptian presidential elections runoffs set to start on Saturday after the court declared a political Disenfranchisement law that could have disqualified him from the race unconstitutional.