Article 3 of the presidential elections law 22 of 2014, issued by interim President Adli Mansour on 8 March, specifies that a five-member judicial Presidential Election Commission (PEC) is to take charge of overseeing the ballot from beginning to end. The PEC's members hail from Egypt's four highest judicial authorities: the Supreme Constitutional Court, the Court of Cassation, the Appeals Court and the State Council (administrative courts). Anwar Al-Assi, First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Constitutional Court, chairs the PEC. Its members are: Nabil Salib, chairman of Cairo's Appeal Court; Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Razek Hassan, Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Constitutional Court; Ezzat Abdel-Gawad Ahmed Omran, Deputy Chairman of the Court of Cassation and Essameddin Abdel-Aziz Gad Al-Hak, Deputy Chairman of the State Council. The law empowers the PEC to select polling and vote-counting stations, prepare voter lists and regulate and supervise election campaigns. Article 7 places PEC decisions beyond appeal. “This immunity,” argued Mansour, “is necessary because members of the PEC hail from Egypt's highest judicial authorities, and the door cannot be left open for appeals that could delay the announcement of the results for anything up to six months.” Candidates will be allowed to file appeals against auxiliary polling stations, says PEC spokesman Abdel-Aziz Salman, and against main stations, but “will only be allowed to file complaints — rather than appeals — against PEC orders which the PEC is obliged to review within three days”. The PEC is scheduled to announce the final results of the poll on 5 June. Candidates and political forces are barred from declaring any results prior to this date. In 2012 the Muslim Brotherhood held a press conference hours after the polls closed announcing its candidate, Mohamed Morsi had won. Fifteen thousand judges will take part in supervising the ballot. “This includes 9,000 judges from judicial and prosecution authorities,” says Salman, “and 6,000 from the State Council, the State Cases Authority and Administrative Prosecution. An additional 500 judges will be made available as a reserve.” The ballot will be held at 33,000 auxiliary polling stations and 352 vote-counting centres. Voters will be able to cast their ballots between 9am and 9pm. “On voting day judges will see that all facilities are available — glass ballot boxes, red ink and, where required, computers,” Salman told a press conference on Monday. “Employees of local councils will also be available to help judges perform their job.” Polling stations will be guarded by police and army forces. “They will coordinate with judges to ensure no campaigning takes place outside polling stations and guaranteed citizens can vote safely,” said Salman. The Cairo-based Judges' Club has announced that judges who have expressed their political affiliations through media channels or at public rallies will not take part in supervising the polls. Mahmoud Al-Sherif, the Club's spokesman, singled out members of the Judges for the Sake of Egypt group who belong to the Muslim Brotherhood and took part in sit-ins in Cairo and Giza after Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was removed from office. Abdallah Fathi, Deputy Chairman of the Judges Club, points out that, unlike army and police personnel, judges are allowed to vote. Judges will be also responsible for helping foreign monitors and media cover the polls. The PEC and supervising judges will cooperate with foreign monitors and the 79 civil society and human rights organisations licensed to observe the vote, says Salman. “Monitors will be allowed to enter polling stations to observe the vote. While they are inside the stations — they will not be allowed to stay more than half an hour — they must wear their license cards. They will also be allowed to attend the count in main polling stations provided they join the process from the start.”
