Over 1,000 judges vowed to boycott presidential and parliamentary elections unless the government responded to their demands. Mona El-Nahhas reports At an emergency general assembly of the Alexandria Judges Club, around 1,200 judges threatened to abstain from supervising this year's presidential and parliamentary elections unless they were given full control over every stage of the elections. The judges also called on the state to endorse their draft amendment of the judiciary authority law, which they see as currently undermining judges' independence. "We want a truly independent judiciary through which we can protect freedoms and rights," the general assembly declared. Friday's show of force placed Egypt's judges at the forefront of activists pushing for political reform. Their move was dubbed an "Intifada" of the judiciary. "We won't allow anyone to accuse us of being part of rigging elections. We want full responsibility over elections, starting with checking voters' lists, to sorting ballots and announcing the results," said Hisham Geneina, the Cairo Judges Club secretary-general. Geneina told Al- Ahram Weekly that, "elections should either be wholly supervised by the judiciary, or else by whoever wants to forge their results." Parliamentary elections have long been marred by violations including multiple voting by supporters of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), voting in the name of the dead, and preventing opposition supporters from reaching the ballot boxes. Although present for the first time during the 2000 elections, judges were unable to monitor the goings on outside polling stations, and were only responsible for some and not all of the stations. Violations again took place. An amendment introduced into the law in 2000 -- following a Supreme Constitutional Court ruling contesting the legality of both the 1990 and 1995 parliamentary elections on the grounds of numerous irregularities committed by the police and other bodies -- mandates that unless judges supervise elections, their results will be considered null and void. If the judges decide to carry out their threat and boycott the elections, the resulting constitutional crisis could delay the vote. The judges are hoping the draft they submitted will be endorsed before parliament goes into recess in June. It's the perfect time, they say, for a return to the true ideals of the constitution, which calls for a complete separation between the executive, legislative and judiciary branches. "Any meaningful political reform should begin with the independence of the judiciary," Geneina said. First proposed in 1991 by members of the Cairo Judges Club's general assembly, the draft remained shelved somewhere in former justice minister Farouk Seifel-Nasr's office. Six months ago, Justice Minister Mahmoud Abul-Leil formed a committee to study amendments of nearly 61 articles that judges felt curbed their authority. The new draft recommends that judges be financially independent from the government, and that the justice minister, who represents the executive branch, should no longer control the judiciary budget. Instead, the Supreme Council of the Judiciary should take charge of all judges' budgetary and financial affairs. The Supreme Council, according to the draft, should be reformulated; its members elected by the general assemblies of both the Appeals and Cassation Courts. "The Supreme Council of the Judiciary in its current formation does not represent the will of the majority of judges," Geneina said. "It's illogical that just seven members would represent the will of all Egyptian judges." The draft calls for upping the number of judges in the council. The Supreme Judicial Council, for its part, was critical of the Judges Club move, telling them -- in essence -- to be patient. The council's head, Ahmed Medhat El-Maraghi, said, "rushing to draft amendments will not be very helpful for judges. Producing a comprehensive draft to get what judges want should be more thoroughly studied." The two judicial bodies are also quibbling over the higher committee that will be in charge of supervising the first multi- candidate presidential elections in Egypt's history. The Judges Club wants the committee limited to just judges, whose neutrality is guaranteed, while the Supreme Judicial Council doesn't mind including trustworthy public figures. That concept met criticism from many judges, who said public figures' political neutrality could not be guaranteed, since they would be appointed by either President Hosni Mubarak, the main candidate for the presidency, or another top government official or NDP figure. "That would curtail the committee's impartiality," Geneina said. The judges have invited President Mubarak to attend their upcoming general assembly, scheduled at the headquarters of the Cairo Judges Club on 13 May. Meanwhile, the Popular Movement for Change, also known as Kifaya (Enough), has chosen to express its support for the judges' demands by staging a symbolic sit-in at courts in 10 big cities in Egypt on 27 April.
