Results of elections at the Cairo Judges Club will determine its immediate future, reports Mona El-Nahhas Hundreds of judges throughout Egypt will head on Friday, 13 February, to the downtown headquarters of the Cairo Judges Club to elect a new council. At noon that day, judges will cast their votes at the club's 25 electoral committees. Three judges are competing for the club's chairmanship, while 69 judges are running for the council's 14 seats. The chair candidates are Hisham Geneina, the club's secretary- general since 2002 and one of the reformist group of judges, Ahmed El-Zend, head of the Tanta Appeals Court who is said to have the support of the state-appointed Supreme Judiciary Council, and Sami Zeineddin, who leads the young generation of judges. Each candidate has an electoral list which includes names of nominees competing for council seats. Nominees on each list have the same electoral agenda. For Geneina, the independence of the judiciary takes priority, while improving the financial situation of judges comes on the top of El-Zend's electoral agenda. As for Zeineddin, cooperation between the state's institutions and the judiciary authority is a must. Days before the poll, the contest seemed to be narrowing to one between Geneina and El-Zend. According to judicial sources, the election of either will show which path the club will take. Judges may continue to abide by the call for reform, or the club's role might become limited to simply providing services to its members. The last two months have seen non-stop campaign tours by Geneina and El-Zend at club branches submitting their electoral programmes, offering solutions to the current problems facing judges and listening to demands of club members. While admitting that the financial situation of judges is deteriorating, Geneina stressed during his frequent meetings with judges that improving their condition should not be at the expense of marginalising the role played by the club in pressing for judicial reform and independence. Geneina said judges are, first and foremost, citizens and should not be prevented from expressing their views on general issues even if such issues have a political dimension. "The law prohibits judges from joining or supporting any political force, but expressing a viewpoint is not banned by law," Geneina said. But El-Zend contends that judges should not be allowed either to talk about or work in politics. El-Zend pledged to defend the independence of the judiciary which he views as a red line. He said he believed this should be done through a rational dialogue with all state institutions. Instead of seeking direct confrontation with the state, El-Zend urged bridging the gap between the judiciary and the government. The current council board was recently subjected to severe criticism by a number of pro-government judges for escalating tension with the state by staging sit-ins and organising protests while pressing for reform. According to this camp, which has been inciting judges against reformist candidates, such practices, besides harming the relationship between the state and the judiciary, had decreased the public's respect of judges. In an article published earlier this week in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom, reformist judge Mahmoud El-Khodeiri wrote: "The state wants a tame club, the only aim of which is entertainment, while judges need a club that supports them and defends their rights." In addition to electing a new club board, the general assembly is scheduled to discuss several heated topics the most controversial of which is referring judges to disciplinary councils. A report recently issued by the club revealed that the legal rights of judges referred to disciplinary councils had been violated while conducting investigations with them by the Justice Ministry's Judicial Inspection Department. A large number of judges complained that investigators pressured them into submitting their resignation, the report said. Moreover, investigations with judges were said to have lasted for several hours without considering the health of some of them. The report recommended that the current judiciary authority law be amended. It says the inspection department should no longer be affiliated to the Justice Ministry which represents the executive authority. Investigations with judges should be done via the Supreme Judiciary Council, the report concluded. The report, sent to Justice Minister Mamdouh Marei and chairman of the Supreme Judiciary Council Moqbel Shaker, will be submitted to members of the general assembly.
