After hints that judges were set to relent on their threats to boycott supervision of next month's poll, it looks like the issue is up in the air again. Mona El-Nahhas investigates Two weeks ago, it looked like Egypt's judges were leaning towards supervising next month's presidential elections, a reversal of their earlier threats to boycott the polls unless they were given full control over every stage. Their change of attitude was sparked by guarantees offered to them by the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC); while not fully what the judges had asked for, the guarantees were an encouraging start. The optimism did not last long. At a meeting in Alexandria last week with members of judicial bodies, PEC chairman Mamdouh Marie turned down most of the judges' demands. "I am not going to take orders from anybody," an angry Marie allegedly said. Established last month by the new presidential elections law to regulate the entire electoral process, the PEC had set a number of conditions governing the 7 September poll that judges saw as positive. One was that every poll station would include three ballot boxes, all subject to the judges' direct control. Another was that judges monitoring the polls would be asked to sign the backs of voters' ballots to ensure their accuracy and validity. At nearly 300 primary poll stations, meanwhile, judges would also be free to walk outside the station and listen to voters' complaints. They would be empowered to shut down stations that feature violations. During previous elections and referendums, judges only manned the main poll stations, which constitute just five per cent of the total. The absence of active judicial supervision over auxiliary stations, usually run by government employees, was widely seen as the main factor allowing the rigging of election results and the forging of turnout figures. These same types of violations were rampant during last May's referendum, when there was only partial judicial supervision, according to a report prepared by judges who took part and entitled "Egypt's conscience". Buoyed by the initial guarantees announced by the PEC, the Cairo Judges Club submitted a memorandum to the commission citing several other guarantees that they saw as prerequisites for the elections to be fair. One thing they asked for was that voters be required to dip their finger in phosphoric ink before casting their vote. It is unclear how the commission will respond to that demand. While Marie was first alleged to have said that citizens "are free to use or not use phosphorus ink when voting," official PEC spokesman Osama Atawiya said the chairman had been misquoted, and that the ink was an effective guarantee against multiple voting. Another demand was that the heads of auxiliary stations announce the results immediately following the vote sorting process, and that candidates' representatives at the stations receive official notice of those results. "Thus, if they have any doubts about the authenticity of the results, they will have a chance to contest within 24 hours, as is stipulated by the law," the Cassation Court's Ahmed Mekki told Al-Ahram Weekly. "This will never happen," Marie told the assembled judges during last week's Alexandria meeting. According to PEC regulations, results of the sorting process should be submitted to the main polling stations, and then to the PEC without being announced. The memorandum also said that voter registration cards were a must. The PEC has indicated that any means of proving a voter's identity would be enough. The judges also insisted that representatives of different NGOs should be at the poll committees to register their notes and submit complaints to judges. This demand was also firmly rejected by Marie. "If they have nothing to hide, why are they so worried about the presence of NGOs at the polls?" asked Hesham Geneina, the secretary-general of the Cairo Judges Club. The debate over these and other issues has re-ignited the question of whether or not the judges are going to supervise the 7 September poll. "If we have any doubts about the fairness of elections, we are not going to take part," said Ahmed Saber, a member of the club's board. "Our final stance will be decided during the general assembly scheduled for 2 September," he said. The issue of judicial supervision is highly sensitive, coming as it does in the wake of widespread calls for international monitoring of the vote. Geneina said that, "Egyptian monitoring is better than international monitoring being imposed upon us." Along with their call for complete judicial supervision over elections, judges have also asked for amendments to the current judicial authority law that would ensure their total independence from the executive authority. Although the justice minister has approved some of the articles that were included in the draft proposed by judges, the draft as a whole has not yet been endorsed due to the People's Assembly being in summer recess. "This is nothing but a waste of time. If they are really serious about amending the law, the law would see the light regardless of the parliamentary recess," Geneina said, referring to the fact that the president has the right to pass decrees endorsing their draft. "Anyway, we have no choice but to wait and see whether or not our demands will be met," he said.
