Demand seen as embarrassing to Egypt's govt
A group of Egyptian judges demanded to be exempted from supervising the 2011 presidential elections, a move seen as embarrassing to the ruling party for its implicit endorsement of vote rigging allegations in the 2010 parliamentary elections.
In the meeting of the Judges’ Club General Assembly in Cairo, several judges submitted a memorandum in which they stated how terrified they were at the violations committed during the latest parliamentary elections, the Egyptian daily independent al-Masry al-Youm reported.
The violations mentioned in the memo included not abiding by several court orders in election disputes, the use of thugs by candidates, and the insults to which several judges were exposed during the poll.
The judges added that elections are said to be supervised by them while in fact they are not and that is why they do not want to be involved.
"In light of the violations that took place in the last elections, several of which were against the judges themselves, it is either judges are allowed full supervision of elections or granted full exemption," they wrote.
The judges’ request was met with objection by head of the Judges’ Club Ahmed al-Zend on the grounds that judges will be breaking the law and violating the constitution if they do not accept the duty assigned to them in the elections.
"This is a trust given to judges and they cannot give it up," he said.
Election fraud
The request was approved by 4,591 judges who are the members of the Judges’ Club and the assembly has to approve it, said pro-reform judge Ahmed Mekki, former chief of the Court of Cassation.
"The assembly has to exempt them from the supervision of both parliamentary and presidential elections so that the request can be raised to chairman of the Supreme Judiciary Council judge Serry Seyam," he told AlArabiya.net.
Mekki added that the indignation of judges started during the election process when three judges submitted a written request to the Higher Elections Committee stating that they would not take part in the run-offs after the violations that took place in the first round.
"The participation of judges in these elections makes them accomplices in those violations and renders them guilty of fraud as well. They will never accept that."
Mekki explained that the Egyptian government is not willing to give judges full supervision of elections even though they demanded this several times before.
"Judges demanded that they have the right to cancel the poll in constituencies that witness acts of fraud and that the police abide by their decisions in this regard, but the government refused."
They also called for the annulment of several regulations that facilitate fraud like allowing a voter who carries no ID to take part in the poll if another voter identifies him/her.
"Judges have to pull out from this farce in order to preserve their dignity and that of the entire judiciary."
Decent objection
Political analyst Amr al-Shobaki disagrees with Mekki and sees the memo submitted to the Judges’ Club as a form of "decent objection" by a few judges who represent the reformist or the "independent" camp.
"Most judges who represent the moderate camp do not want the exemption and respect the trust given to them," he said. "I don’t think the request in the memo will be granted."
Shobaki explained that the participation or boycott of judges does not guarantee the transparency of elections since there has to be a will in the political circles to conduct a fraud-free election.
"The judges can ask for guarantees in order to supervise the elections and it is up to the regime to grant or reject them."
Nasser Amin, director of the Arab Center for Judiciary Independence, considers the judges’ demand a major embarrassment to the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and President Hosni Mubarak, especially before the presidential elections.
"The government insults judges when it announces fraudulent results of elections that are supposedly conducted under their supervision," he said. "This has been the case since 1976 and continues till 2010."
Amin added that despite constant attempts by judges to be granted full supervision of elections and to be given guarantees of transparency, the government has not been responding.
"The government even cancelled the historic ruling by the Higher Constitutional Court in 2000 which gave full and direct election supervision to judges and instead the Higher Elections Committee was formed."
Amin objected to Zend’s opinion that the judges’ rejection of supervision is a violation of the constitution.
"Supervision of elections is voluntary and judges are not required by law to do so. Plus, the judiciary is independent and judges are free to choose what they want," he concluded.
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)