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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 June - 5 July 2000 Issue No. 488 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 June - 5 July 2000 Issue No. 488
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Battle for the Bar
By Mona El-NahhasLawyers are apprehensive that after numerous trials and tribulations, the Bar Association elections scheduled for this Saturday may be postponed. The Supreme Administrative Court was scheduled to hear a governmental appeal on Wednesday contesting a lower court ruling on where the balloting will take place.
The difficulties began when the judicial committee in charge of supervising the elections decided that the balloting should be staged at social clubs and youth centres. Ahmed Nasser, a candidate for the post of chairman, objected to the decision, claiming that it violated the laws regulating the legal profession and opened the door to wide-scale election rigging. Nasser argued that because lawyers would have no control on ballot boxes, "Everything will be left in the hands of security men, and the scenario of [rigged] parliamentary elections will be repeated." A lower administrative court agreed, ruling on Sunday that the balloting should take place at the headquarters of the general and branch syndicates.
It seems that lawyers, who have fought for more than three years to end the judicial sequestration imposed on their syndicate, will have to fight another battle to prevent the government from interfering in the elections. Nasser has also filed another lawsuit contesting the judicial committee's decision to ban candidates' representatives from following up the election process inside the polling stations.
Lawyers vowed to take action if the Supreme Administrative Court accepts the government's appeal and allows the elections to be staged at clubs and youth centres. Representatives of various factions of lawyers told a news conference on Saturday that "lawyers, who are the honest guardians of law, will stand firmly against the government's conspiracy against them and will defend the independence of their syndicate with their utmost strength."
According to lawyers, a delay of one or two weeks is of little consequence, if it is traded for clean elections. "The most important thing for us is that elections are fair and reflect the true will of lawyers," said leftist lawyer Assem Abdin.
"The government's intention to rig the elections has become very clear," claimed Nasser, adding that lawyers are waiting for the ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court to decide their next step.
"We will never accept a council that is an amalgam of the ruling National Democratic Party and the Muslim Brotherhood. It would be better for us not to have elections at all," said Nasser, alluding to the undeclared alliance between Ragai Atiya, the unofficial candidate of the ruling National Democratic Party's for syndicate chairman, and the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Under the alleged deal, the Brotherhood will back Atiya for chairman in return for a promise of more than half of the 24 seats on the association's council.
Mohamed Enani, who runs the affairs of the syndicate in the absence of Counsellor Wahid Mahmoud, head of the syndicate's interim committee, maintains that the elections will take place on schedule. "Work is going on as planned," Enani told Al-Ahram Weekly on Tuesday, adding that he does not believe the Supreme Administrative Court will take much time in deciding the location of the balloting. "Today, we started distributing voting ballots to lawyers, whose number exceeds 80,000," he added.
Twelve candidates are running for syndicate chairman and 218 lawyers will compete for seats on the syndicate's council. The most prominent candidates for council membership include Hamed El-Azhari, Galal Ragab, Ahmed Seif El-Islam, Said El-Far, Ahmed Goma'a and Montasser El-Zayyat.
Relates stories:
A new chart for the Bar? - 22 - 28 June 2000
Scepticism at the Bar - 9 - 15 March 2000
Making ready for Bar elections - 21 - 27 October 1999
Liberating the Bar?- 11 - 17 March 1999
