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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491
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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 Lawyers in disarray
By Mona El-NahhasDue to lack of coordination, a lawyers' strike scheduled to be staged at all courts-of-law last Saturday failed to take off in both the Cairo and Giza governorates. The strike was to protest the indefinite postponement of Bar Association elections. Work went on smoothly at the Cairo and Giza courts because, instead of going on strike, lawyers preferred to wait until the Supreme Administrative Court heard a government appeal contesting the locations of polling stations in the delayed elections.
However, in Port Said, Gharbiya and several other governorates, lawyers managed to organise a successful work stoppage, demonstrating their rejection of government attempts to delay the elections. This was put on record in the minutes of the court hearings.
At the Bar Association headquarters, a few lawyers gathered to declare that an ongoing sit-in strike there would continue until a date was set for elections.
On the other hand, Mahfouz Shuman, head of the judicial committee in charge of supervising elections at professional syndicates, announced that he would set a date for elections only after the Supreme Administrative Court handed down a decision on the government appeal.
The delay in organising elections, originally scheduled for 1 July, was the result of a dispute between lawyers and the judicial committee about polling station locations. The judicial committee had decided to set up polling stations at youth centres, social clubs, companies and governmental departments. Ahmed Nasser, a prominent candidate for syndicate chairman, challenged the decision on legal grounds. He argued that, according to the law, elections must be held within the syndicate's main and branch offices. Nasser charged that the committee's decision could facilitate election rigging, namely that lawyers will have no control over ballot boxes, since they would be in the hands of security men.
On 25 June, the Administrative Court ruled that elections should indeed be held at the main and branch offices. The government appealed the ruling at the Supreme Administrative Court. The appeal will be heard on Saturday.
Raga'i Attiya, the government's candidate for syndicate chairman, urged a solution for the Bar Association crisis. Attiya declared support for the work stoppage, yet stressed the importance of a friendly dialogue with the head of the judicial committee. At a conference last Thursday at the headquarters of the syndicate's Cairo chapter, he asked the assembled lawyers to appeal to Shuman to immediately set a date for elections.
Attiya claimed that he suffered the greatest damage as a result of the delay. He accused his rivals, Ahmed Nasser and Sameh Ashour, who are also running for syndicate chairman, of being the principal reason behind the postponement. The charge provoked many lawyers and a clash was about to erupt between Attiya's supporters and opponents. Security forces quickly intervened to restore order.
