Brotherhood at the Bar
Disputed internal elections at the Bar Association heavily favoured the Muslim Brotherhood. Not everybody is happy about that, reports Mona El-Nahhas
An election that took place at the Bar Association on 6 March was the latest manifestation of a dispute between the association's Muslim Brotherhood cadres and the rest of its members.
Fifteen of the association's 25 council members took part in the elections, held every two years, to determine the new members of the syndicate's council. Amongst those who were not present for the vote: the association's Nasserist chairman, Sameh Ashour, and nine other council members. Eight of the 15 who participated, meanwhile, belong to the outlawed brotherhood; it was no surprise, then, that the leading posts in the council were won by either brotherhood members or their supporters.
Ahmed Seif El-Islam Hassan El- Banna, whose father was the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, remained in his post as the syndicate's secretary- general. Mohamed Tosson, another brotherhood member, and Mohamed El- Saqqa, a Wafdist supporter of the brotherhood, were both elected to deputy chairman roles.
Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly, Ashour refused to elaborate on the elections, merely labeling them illegal. The association's chairman said he had not called for the elections to be held, and thus any decisions taken at the meeting were, in Ashour's mind, null and void.
Those who did take part in the voting had a differing view, of course. Tosson said that Ashour was well aware of both the date and agenda of the meeting, which, according to the association's statutes, takes place on the first Thursday of every month. The statutes also stipulate, said Tosson, that if the chairman is not in attendance, his longest- serving deputy is to chair the meeting. "And that's exactly what happened," Tosson said, vouching for both the meeting's legal quorum and the fact that its decisions were the result of a consensus.
Tosson dismissed claims that the brotherhood was attempting to take over the association. "The council is acting normally," he said. "We respect the chairman's authority and expect him to reciprocate that respect."
In fact, however, a clear rift between Ashour and the council's Islamist members goes back to the association's February 2001 elections, which resulted in two thirds of the council members being either from the brotherhood or amongst its supporters. The core of the conflict, of course, is control of the syndicate's affairs. According to observers, brotherhood members have indeed managed to marginalise the chairman's role, and place most important functions under their direct control.
If anything, the 6 March elections indicate that Ashour may be losing even more control. Ibrahim Fares, who recently seems to have migrated away from Ashour's camp, was elected as the deputy secretary-general. One of Ashour's strongest supporters, Said Abdel-Khaleq, meanwhile, was not re- elected as chairman of the committee in charge of supervising all of the syndicate's publications. Islamist lawyer Youssef Kamal got the job instead.
Another brotherhood member, Abdel- Salam Keshk, remained in the assistant treasurer post. Keshk had played a prominent role in the most recent visible clash between the two camps, when the Islamist-controlled council ordered the dismissal of Khaled Abu-Kresha from his assistant treasurer post. Abu-Kresha was accused by the council of committing financial violations and removed from office during a meeting that Ashour and his supporters walked out of.
The tense situation at the Bar Association has a majority of lawyers worried about their syndicate's future. A symposium dedicated to the issue, held at the Press Syndicate last week, was fraught with concern over the possibility that the current struggle for power would eventually lead to the association's judicial sequestration, as was the case between 1996-2001.
Organised by the Future Centre for Studies and Research, the symposium itself featured a verbal clash between Islamist and Nasserist lawyers, despite its call for a settlement between the two sides. Needless to say, that recommendation was shelved after the 6 March elections.
According to Islamist lawyer Montasser El-Zayyat, chairman of the Future Centre for Studies and Research, the struggle for power has adversely affected the association's work. General Assembly meetings have not taken place since the 2001 elections, he said, and the annual budget was not submitted, which has led to "unlimited expenditure". El- Zayyat's prediction was that the conflict between the chairman and the council would probably go on for years, much to the detriment of the association itself.
