Candidates are up and running in the Bar Association's tightly contested elections, Mona El-Nahhas reports Eighteen lawyers are running for the post of Bar Association chairman, while 400 are competing for the 41 seats of the syndicate council. Candidates have launched their election campaigns, which are due to continue until 9 October, a day before the vote. Preparing a new draft law regulating the legal profession, amending registration procedures at the syndicate and improving the level of services provided to lawyers have been declared the major issues in the candidates' platforms. Among the chairmanship candidates is Ragie Attia, a member of the ruling NDP, liberal MP Talaat El-Sadat, Coptic lawyer Adel Ramzi Hanna, the first Copt to run since 1952, and Nasserist lawyer Sameh Ashour who occupied the chairmanship seat for two successive terms starting in 2001. Following the nominations, prominent chairmanship candidates started drawing up their electoral lists usually based on electoral calculations, and in which the chairmanship candidate puts down names of nominees who will run as council members and who are mainly his supporters. Thus, if a candidate wins the chairmanship, he can help guarantee a harmonious performance by the council. Electoral lists are not a necessity; El-Sadat will not have one. "I will represent all lawyers. My programme will serve every lawyer and my ambitions are those of all lawyers," El-Sadat told reporters after submitting his nomination papers. The lists are not obligatory for the voter who either chooses all the names included in any of the electoral lists or selects just a few names. Attia stressed that his list, if there is to be one, will include names of prominent lawyers regardless of their political leanings. Ashour insisted that in his national electoral list, all political affiliations will have equal billing. "No specific political trend will be dominant," Ashour stated, referring to the Muslim Brotherhood that controlled the syndicate council in previous Bar Association elections. The relationship between Ashour and the MB is not good. Since the 2001 elections, held after five years of judicial sequestration, clashes between Ashour and the MB erupted as each side vied to marginalise the role of the other. The MB accused Ashour of secretly planning with the state to undermine them in the syndicate. Ashour repeatedly claimed the MB used the syndicate to serve their political ends. At a press conference held earlier this week, lawyers belonging to the MB announced the group's electoral list which included the names of 41 candidates running as members of the syndicate council. Half are members of the MB and the rest, although having different political affiliations, are allies of the influential group. The identity of the chairmanship candidate who will be backed by the MB, has not been announced. It is a tactic employed by the MB not to reveal the name of the candidate of their choice at such an early stage. "Taking such a step now would anger the 17 remaining chairmanship candidates," Gamal Tageddin, spokesman for the MB lawyers, told Al-Ahram Weekly, adding they would reveal their candidate's name at the suitable time. In the 2001 and 2005 Bar Association elections, the MB backed Attia, but their support was not enough for victory. For the MB, seizing the majority of the syndicate council seats is their target in any Bar Association election. The group is not primarily concerned about who becomes syndicate chairman as long as they dominate the council. Judicial supervision will be absent in the elections which will be held via the legal profession law amended in June. Law 100/1993, which regulates the electoral process at professional syndicates, will not be applied in the case of the Bar Association, whose council was dissolved in February by a court ruling. In its ruling, the Administrative Court said the results of the 2005 Bar elections were null and void. Accordingly, the Islamist- controlled council headed by a Nasserist chairman was dissolved. A judicial committee, headed by Chief Justice of the Appeals Court Adel Andrawes was formed to administer syndicate affairs until the election of a new council. Law 100 did not tackle how to stage elections should the council be dissolved. The amended law will be used as the alternative. Several lawyers are concerned that the legal profession law may lead to rigging elections. According to the law, lawyers working for branch syndicates in the provinces will replace judges in supervising elections. As a result, Islamist lawyer Mokhtar Nouh, who was planning to compete for the post of syndicate chairman, withdrew. Beside the lack of judicial supervision and the possibility of being rigged, a number of appeals contesting the legality of holding such elections are still being heard in courts. As such, candidates may be surprised at the last minute with a ruling ordering a stoppage of the poll.
