Judges calling for reform are defeated in elections at Cairo Judges' Club, reports Mona El-Nahhas Following a fierce electoral battle Ahmed El-Zend, head of the Tanta Appeals Court, emerged as chairman of the Cairo Judges' Club on Friday. El-Zend gained 2,421 votes. Hisham Geneina, his nearest rival, the club's former secretary- general and a vociferous advocate of reform, had the support of 2,037 judges. El-Zend's camp also won a majority of the council's 14 seats, with only four places going to Geneina's supporters. Turnout was high as hundreds of judges from across Egypt headed to Cairo to participate in the vote. The polls were open for seven hours and it was 10pm when the head of the committee supervising the electoral process announced the results. El-Zend -- widely seen as the government's candidate -- pledged himself to opening a "rational dialogue" with all state institutions, the Justice Ministry and the state-appointed Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC). He has promised to build bridges between the judiciary and the government, and campaigned on improving the services that the Judges' Club offers members. Moqbel Shaker, chairman of the SJC, entered the club for the first time since 2002 -- the year in which he was defeated as chairman by reformist judge Zakaria Abdel-Aziz -- in order to congratulate El-Zend. Shaker has already promised to improve the judges' salaries. Geneina told Al-Ahram Weekly that he was facing not just El-Zend in the elections but the entire government. "Judges were pressured to give up their calls for reform and join hands with the government candidate through a series of financial incentives," said Geneina. Ahead of the elections judges were told salaries would increase and were promised a range of privileges including customs exempt cars. It was also reported that the Justice Ministry had ordered heads of first-degree courts to mobilise provincial judges to vote for El-Zend. Mahmoud El-Khodeiri, former chairman of the Alexandria Judges' Club, says the defeat of reformist judges has shocked the public who had hoped the judges could lead the way to political reform. El-Khodeiri now expects Cairo Judges' Club to abandon its demand for greater judicial independence. "The club's performance will deteriorate in the next three years. Its role will be limited to simply providing services to its members," he said. Members of the elected council held their first meeting yesterday to outline the club's coming strategy. Sources close to the reformist minority revealed that El-Zend has banned council members from speaking to the media. The previous council had been heavily criticised for staging sit-ins, organising street protests, talking to the media and exposing the electoral fraud which marred the 2005 parliamentary polls. The rift between judges and the government had many consequences. The financial subsidy allocated to the club was suspended, several judges were referred to disciplinary councils and many privileges previously enjoyed by judges were removed. "For a long time, I have been calling for change," Rifaat El-Sayed, chairman of Assiut Judges' Club, told reporters following the announcement of results. El-Sayed, who had led the campaign against what he argued was the increasing politicisation of the club and council, hailed the election as drawing a line beneath the club's earlier oppositional stance. "The Judges' Club should be home only to judges," he said. "Our club is back," shouted El-Zend's supporters, who used fireworks to celebrate their victory. Despite the ascendancy of the government camp reformist judges have not lost hope. "We are going to continue our march. We'll never give up," Judge Mahmoud Mekki told Al-Ahram Weekly, adding that more than 2,000 judges had voted for change.
