Tuesday's ruling upholding the decisions of the Presidential Elections Commission staves off a potential constitutional crisis, reports Gamal Essam El-Din Civil society organisations were dealt a blow on Tuesday after Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) backed the Presidential Elections Commission's (PEC) ban on monitors inside polling stations. The SAC judgement overturned two earlier rulings by Cairo's Administrative Court (CAC) which had found in favour of the alliance of 22 NGOs petitioning to monitor yesterday's elections both inside and outside polling stations. The SAC based its decision on the amendments to Article 76 of the constitution which make PEC decisions final and above judicial review. The SAC also revoked a second CAC ruling that had ordered the name of the chairman of the Egypt Arab Socialist Party, Wahid El-Oqssori, to be removed from the list of 10 candidates. Tuesday's rulings mark the end of a two-week battle between the PEC -- which has disqualified hundreds of judges belonging to the State Council, among the commission's most vociferous critics, from monitoring the vote -- and NGOs and the Judges Club. Independent judge and MP Adel Eid, speaking about the earlier CAC judgement, told Al-Ahram Weekly the rulings were "a condemnation of the commission's refusal to allow civil society organisations to comprehensively monitor the polls". "During the parliamentary debate over the presidential elections law," he continued, "independent and opposition MPs rang alarm bells at the possibility that the PEC would end up playing into the hands of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP)." Its subsequent behaviour, he believes, shows these fears to have been valid. NGOs filed their appeal with the CAC following the commission's initial rejection of their requests to monitor the elections. Farouk Abdel-Qader, an Administrative Court judge, believes the presence of independent NGOs at the polling stations would have helped guarantee the transparency and integrity of the elections. PEC spokesman Osama Atawiya, however, announced that access to polling stations would be restricted to judges, candidates' representatives and journalists. "NGOs can monitor the elections but from outside the polling stations," Atawiya said. "Article 76 clearly states that the commission's decisions are final and cannot be appealed." On Sunday parliamentary speaker Fathi Sorour joined the fray, telling parliamentary reporters that since "the commission is a judicial and not administrative authority its decisions cannot be overturned by an administrative court". He added that the presidential elections law, which was revised by the Supreme Constitutional Court before being passed by the People's Assembly, had also placed the commission decisions beyond appeal. In reaching its decision the CAC had argued that "the monitoring process was not part of the commission's prerogatives". "The commission's responsibilities should be confined to matters of nomination, election procedures and determining and announcing the result." All other matters, the CAC ruled, were the prerogative of the judges. On Tuesday Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said that while, in theory, he supported the presence of more monitors in practice it would lead to overcrowding and chaos within polling stations. The appeal against El-Oqssori's candidacy was filed by Mohamed Siddiq, currently competing against El-Oqssori for the chairmanship of the Egypt Arab Socialist Party. El-Oqssori countered with an appeal of his own, filed with the Court of Urgent Matters (CUM). While El-Oqssori's appeal was rejected, the SAC went on to overturn the CAC's judgement in favour of Siddiq. Had the CAC's order been upheld, says Eid, doubt would have been cast on the legality of the presidential elections. "Implementing the ruling could well have involved postponing the elections and re-opening the nomination process." On Tuesday evening Atawiya announced the commission's final decisions on the logistics of the poll. Voting hours would be extended by two hours, with polling stations closing at 10pm rather than 8pm, and there would be an additional 128 auxiliary polling stations. The final result of the elections, he said, will be announced within three days.
