Going back and forth on their boycott threats, judges may end up reluctantly agreeing to supervise the elections after all. Mona El-Nahhas investigates On Friday, hundreds of judges from different governorates will descend on the downtown headquarters of the Cairo Judges Club to decide whether or not they are going to supervise next Wednesday's presidential elections. The general assembly meeting, which will start at 3pm, is sure to be extremely heated. Judicial sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that the judges are leaning towards supervising the elections. That does not mean that they are satisfied with the stipulations set out by the Presidential Election Commission (PEC) regarding their role, but that "we have no choice but to respond to public demands and supervise the elections," said Ahmed Mekki, deputy chief justice of the Cassation Court. Judicial sources said a great many judges actually see the PEC's regulations as an impediment to fair and just elections. Supervising the vote, however, will offer judges the chance "to register violations -- if there are any -- and expose them to the public, like we did during last May's referendum," Mekki said. Initial signs from the PEC had originally led the judges to believe the commission would adopt some of the demands they see as crucial for fair and just elections to take place. For one, the PEC agreed to reduce the number of auxiliary poll stations from 54,000 to 9,737, in order to ensure that each committee will be subject to the direct control of members of judicial bodies (who number some 13,000). During past parliamentary elections and national referendums, state employees usually ran auxiliary poll stations. The absence of active judicial supervision over auxiliary stations was the main reason behind the rigging of elections results and the forging of turnout figures. Last May's referendum, when judges only partially supervised the process, saw the same violations take place. They were cited in a report prepared by judges and entitled "Egypt's conscience". Another positive sign was that the nearly 700 judges at the main polling stations would also be free to walk outside the committees and listen to voters' complaints. They will also be empowered, by means of the PEC's regulations, to shut down stations that feature violations. It also looked like the PEC would respond positively to the judges' demands that voters place a finger in phosphoric ink before casting their vote, as an effective guarantee against multiple voting. Initial indications were that the commission would also mandate that judges monitoring the polls sign the backs of voters' electoral cards to ensure their validity and accuracy. Later, the PEC seemed to have a change of heart on some of these matters. More telling was that while preparing the lists of judges who would supervise elections, the commission did not include the names of those who have been advocating judicial reform. Thus, the judges who had threatened to boycott the polls unless they were given total control over the elections were left out, as were those who put together the damning "Egypt's conscience" report. Judges also discovered that the PEC had not taken seniority into account when assigning judges to main and auxiliary poll stations. While some judges were assigned to head auxiliary stations, main stations were assigned to prosecutors. Angered at these moves, judges began to think that their participation would not help guarantee a fair vote after all. Cairo Judges Club board member Ahmed Saber said, "it's really a paradox that the PEC excluded a large number of judges from the supervision process, while claiming at the same time that there were not enough judges to supervise the elections as a whole." According to Saber, "replacing nearly 500 honourable judges with members of judicial bodies, who are not necessarily judges and who work for the state, destroyed the principle of judicial supervision." The PEC was also criticised for limiting the authority of those judges in charge of supervising auxiliary poll stations. For one thing, the commission will not be allowing the heads of these stations to announce the results of the vote sorting process. According to the PEC's regulations, the results should be submitted to the main polling stations and then to the PEC, which has the sole authority to announce the results. "If they really do not intend to forge turnout figures or elections results, why are they afraid of judges announcing the results?" asked Cassation Court Deputy Chief Justice Hesham Bastawisi, who vowed to inform candidates' representatives of the results at his station if he is assigned to supervise elections. Bastawisi said he was not worried about violating any of the PEC's regulations, an act that would be considered by the law an electoral crime. Judges Club Secretary-general Hesham Geneina said it was important to inform candidates' representatives who will be present at such stations of the results, "so that, if they have any doubts about their authenticity, they will have a chance to contest within 24 hours, as stipulated by the law." Geneina told the Weekly that the Club has asked judges who will supervise elections to retain a copy of the results before sending them to the PEC. He is not sure, however, if all the judges will abide with that recommendation. The PEC has also firmly rejected the presence of NGO representatives at poll stations. This appears to be another major battle to be fought between the judges and the commission. Some judicial sources have said they will allow NGO representatives to attend the different stages of the elections and register their notes, seeing that kind of monitoring as being "better than having international monitoring imposed upon us." Tomorrow's general assembly is expected to recommend that the Cairo Judges Club monitor the elections, without awaiting the PEC's approval. The club will also most likely commission a report evaluating the election process as a whole.
