The Judges Club is bracing itself for an escalation in its conflict with the government following the appointment of a new minister of justice, writes Mona El-Nahhas As part of Sunday's limited cabinet reshuffle Mamdouh Mar'ei, a former chairman of the Supreme Constitutional Court, replaced Mahmoud Abul-Leil as justice minister. Mar'ei took his oath of office before President Mubarak on Monday in Alexandria. Abul-Leil, say officials, resigned due to ill-health. Many judges see Mar'ei's appointment as the harbinger of a new round of conflict between the government and the Judges Club. As chairman of the Supreme Electoral Commission the new minister of justice made no secret of his hostility towards judges demanding reform. The timing of the cabinet reshuffle is significant, say many judges, and will pave the way for the constitutional amendments that the government is determined to push through parliament. Top of the list, they fear, is Article 88 of the constitution, stipulating full judicial supervision of elections. It is anticipated that the government will attempt to exclude judges from supervising future elections or referendums, a move that is guaranteed to provoke widespread protests. According to official statements, any amendment of Article 88 will aim to preserve the dignity of judges. Last year's elections saw several cases of judges being insulted, and even beating, while attempting to exercise their duties at polling stations. "It is false reasoning," says judge Mohamed Mekki. "Judges' dignity was not harmed in the least. Quite the opposite, we won the support of the public due to our stand during the poll." "The goal of any amendment of Article 88 is clear to everyone. It is an attempt to make it easier to rig elections and forge the will of the people." "The ruling NDP," adds Mekki, "is seeking to tighten its grip on power and get rid of any opposition voices as a prelude for the inheritance of power." Judges have threatened to refuse to supervise the referendum necessary to approve any constitutional amendment should it fall short of the complete supervision demanded in the constitution. "Judges are not ready to be part of a rigged referendum of the type that led to the amendment of Article 76 in May 2005 and which saw scandalous infringements", says Mekki. When the judges threatened to boycott last year's presidential and parliamentary polls in the absence of guarantees that they would have complete control of ballot supervision they came into conflict with Mar'ei, the then head of the Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC) charged with defining the role of the judiciary during elections. Following the elections reformist judges went public, denouncing the irregularities and widespread fraud that marred both the parliamentary and presidential polls. Two judges were subsequently referred to disciplinary hearings, charged with tarnishing the image of the judiciary after they named fellow judges who had turned a bind eye to vote rigging. Sources say that in its draft amendment of Article 88, the government will seek to replace full judicial supervision with an independent authority comprising public figures who will oversee the entire electoral process, limiting judges to the supervision of the main polling stations. During a meeting this week, the Judges Club agreed to oppose any attempts to push through an amendment of Article 88 though following the recent cabinet reshuffle few expect the task to be easy. Mar'ei has been criticised in the past for his confrontational style. During last year's conflict with the Judges Club which preceded the presidential election, Mar'ei refused to meet representatives of the club and sought to exclude reformist judges from any supervisory role. Following last June's ratification of a new judiciary law by the People's Assembly which miserably failed to meet the judges' demands for independence from the executive, as presented by the Ministry of Justice, a clash between the Judges Club and Mar'ei is all but inevitable.
