Lawsuits that have led to the suspension of elections at Egypt's Bar Association may do the same at the Cairo Judges Club, reports Mona El-Nahhas The handing down by Egypt's Administrative Court of a ruling delaying elections at the country's Bar Association two weeks ago, just three days before the scheduled date on 18 January, means that the elections may now be delayed for several months until the association's electoral rolls are reviewed, with elections to Cairo's Judges Club facing similar delays, also because of legal challenges. The Administrative Court's ruling, the second in fewer than three months, came hard on the heels of an earlier order last October when it ordered that elections scheduled for 14 November be stopped on the grounds that they did not conform to Law 100/1993, which regulates elections in Egypt's professional syndicates. The latest ruling came in the wake of dozens of lawsuits filed by lawyers contesting the validity of the lists of those registered to vote in the elections and asking that they be halted. The claimants alleged that the lists included the names of long-dead lawyers, as well as those of lawyers working overseas. They also accused former association chairman and candidate for the chairmanship Sameh Ashour of including the names of thousands of lawyers from outside provinces on the lists, most of them his own supporters. A special committee instructed by the court to examine the electoral rolls at the Bar Association found irregularities in the lists and called for their revision. The judicial committee, which has been responsible for the running of the Bar Association since the dissolution of the council early last year, has now started a thorough examination of all the electoral rolls following the January ruling. According to lawyers, the committee, headed by Judge Adel Andrawes, has indicated that this process will be finished in two months time. When the examination has been completed, the revised lists will be submitted to the head of the Cairo Southern Court, who will set a fresh date for nominations and for elections. Egypt's lawyers have met the news of January's ruling in various ways. While one group of lawyers has viewed the ruling as a step towards undermining the independence of the Bar Association, placing its affairs in the hands of a committee headed by Judge Andrawes, others have hailed the Administrative Court's ruling, which, they say, guarantees that the forthcoming elections will not be rigged. Ragaai Attiya, Ashour's main rival for the chairmanship of the association in the elections, said that the ruling exposed the kind of rigging commonly practised on electoral lists. Liberal lawyer and candidate for the chairmanship Talaat El-Sadat agreed, commenting that the ruling would encourage "lawyers to sort out the electoral lists before holding elections", and adding that stopping the elections before they had started was better than running them and then cancelling their results. According to Hamdi Khalifa, chairman of the association's Giza branch and another candidate for the chairmanship, the court's ruling was a result of the flagrant rigging that had taken place in the past. "We are in favour of holding elections on the condition that they are not rigged," Khalifa said, noting that repeated allegations of electoral fraud had marred the association's last set of elections, held in 2005. In February 2008, the Administrative Court ruled that the results of these elections were null and void, and as a result the association's ruling council, chaired by Ashour, was dissolved pending fresh elections. One person who will not benefit from any delay in the new round of elections is Ashour himself, who has said he will file protests if the investigation of the association's electoral rolls takes more than one month to complete. Ashour, who has the backing of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), is thought to be well placed to secure the post of chairman. As a result, "any delay in holding the elections means that Andrawes' committee will continue to run the Bar Association, something which does not please Ashour as it limits his authority," said lawyer Fatma Rabie. However, "for a large majority of lawyers, the current situation at the Bar Association is better than the alternatives," Rabie said. As for members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood (MB) group on the Bar Association, they have apparently decided to wait for the results of the investigating committee before deciding on a course of action. "If it takes Andrawes' committee more than two months to finish its mission, we'll start to take steps to speed up the process," MB lawyer Mohamed Toson said. In the meantime, the atmosphere reigning at Cairo's Judges Club has also been affected by procedural and other difficulties, with the elections due on 13 February coming at a time when the club is embroiled in dozens of legal suits. A ruling made by the Appeals Court that annulled a decision made by the board of the club to raise membership fees is now being appealed before the Court of Cassation, while a lawsuit contesting the formation of the committee charged with supervising the coming elections is also being heard. A ruling on the second case is expected on 31 January. However, despite the many lawsuits candidates for posts at the Judges Club are continuing their campaigns ahead of what are expected to be very heated elections. Of the four candidates for the chairmanship, Hisham Geneina from the reformist camp and Ahmed El-Zend, said to have the backing of the state-appointed Supreme Judiciary Council, appear to be the frontrunners. Both Geneina and El-Zend appear at the top of electoral lists that include the names of candidates competing for seats on the club's 14-member council. As a result, the judges' choice of list in the forthcoming elections will serve as an indicator of the extent to which judges as a whole back reform.
