Last week's referendum on constitutional amendments has provoked a flurry of lawsuits, reports Mona El-Nahhas Justice Minister Mamdouh Marei's announcement of the results of last week's referendum on amendments to 34 articles of the constitution was immediately followed by lawsuits, contesting the veracity of the vote. Marei who headed the Supreme Electoral Commission in charge of regulating the poll, said turnout was 27 per cent of Egypt's 35 million registered voters. The figure is disputed by independent monitors, who place it closer to five per cent. According to Marei, 75 per cent of those who did vote approved the amendments. Human rights activist Hamed Sediq is among those who have filed lawsuits contesting the results, arguing in his petition that the poll was marred by electoral fraud. People's Assembly speaker Fathi Sorour has been inundated by requests from independent parliamentarians asking for an explanation for the discrepancy in Marei's figures and those published by human rights groups, while MP El-Mohamedi Sayed Ahmed has himself filed a lawsuit before the Administrative Court, contesting the legality of the entire referendum process. Ahmed argues that limiting the role of judges to the supervision of only the 334 main polling stations while leaving thousands of auxiliary stations under the control of government employees was in flagrant violation of the constitution. Ahmed's lawsuit has been referred to the Supreme Constitutional Court. It will be a long time however, predicts professor of constitutional law Atef El-Banna, before the court issues a ruling -- something which may take a very long time, he believes. El-Banna agrees with Ahmed that the entire referendum process was unconstitutional. "Any constitutional amendments," he says, "must be approved by the public in a referendum before being applied." Yet the referendum itself, which restricted full judicial supervision of the poll, appears to have been arranged according to the stipulations set out in the amended Article 88, which was being voted upon. Islamist-leaning lawyer Essam El-Islambouli has also filed a lawsuit, arguing that the exclusion of the six million Egyptians living abroad, from participating in the referendum renders the entire poll invalid. According to the law which regulates the practice of political rights, provision must be made for Egyptians living abroad to cast their votes at Egyptian consulates, says El-Islambouli. "Staging the referendum while defectively stripping millions of Egyptians of their right to vote constitutes a major legal flaw," El-Islambouli told Al-Ahram Weekly. Judges have also entered the fray, with many arguing that the vote was fraudulent. "Judges wash their hands off the referendum results," said Cairo Judges' Club board member Ahmed Sabr following the referendum results. "We will not be used as a fig leaf to cover something shameful." A committee affiliated to the Cairo Judges Club is now working on a report that seeks to expose the extent of vote-rigging during the 26 March poll. The report is expected to be ready in time for the extraordinary general assembly of the club, scheduled to be held late next month. In preparing its report, the committee will rely on the testimonies of the dozens of judges who supervised main polling stations, and will itemise the alleged incidents of judges ordered verbally by Marei not to tour auxiliary polling stations. According to Ahmed Mekki, head of the Judges' Club committee, when judges were prevented from visiting polling stations in the Menoufiya and South Sinai governorates, they decided to abandon all supervision in protest. The committee has formed branch offices across Egypt, that are mandated with examining complaints from individuals and human rights groups which participated in the monitoring. The most shocking complaint the committee has received so far was from a government employee assigned to supervise a village polling station. According to an employee, who asked Mekki not to reveal his identity, he was pressured by a member of the ruling National Democratic Party to stuff the empty ballot box with hundreds of pre-marked voting cards. The case is just one of hundreds of similar occurrences reported by human rights groups which monitored the voting process. Most, they say, occurred with the connivance of the police.
