Uncertain elections

Will the government allow lawyers to hold elections? Mona El-Nahhas tried to find out

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The coming Bar Association's elections are expected to be as fierce as the 2001 poll

As the Bar Association gears itself up for next February's elections for the chairman's post and 24 council seats, it is also keeping a close eye on the government's efforts to draft an amendment of the law governing professional syndicate elections as a whole.

Lawyers described the new draft law, which includes amendments to the 1993 unified professional syndicates Law 100, as a formula by which the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) aims to dominate Egypt's professional syndicates. The Bar Association, whose council is controlled by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, is an especially heady target.

Last week, the association's council issued a statement attacking the law for violating legal and constitutional principles, as well as international conventions and agreements. Lawyers described the proposed law as being worse than Law 100, which already has a horrendous reputation. Ever since it came into being in 1993, members of professional syndicates of all stripes have repeatedly called for its abolishment. Their primary gripe is that the law aims to backlog syndicate elections via far-fetched conditions.

For one, the law gave judicial committees, rather than syndicate councils, absolute power to conduct the entire electoral process, from fixing the date to staging the elections themselves. It also stipulated that half of a syndicate's members with the right to vote must be present at a general assembly for a legal quorum to be achieved.

At associations with huge membership lists like the Doctors' Syndicate, it is nearly impossible to meet this condition. As such, elections have not been staged at the Doctors' Syndicate -- or in most other syndicates for that matter -- since 1992.

"Instead of abolishing Law 100 and ceasing to interfere in syndicates' internal affairs," said Mohamed Tosson, a Muslim Brotherhood member of the Bar Association council, "the government introduced an even worse version of the law."

Critics like Tosson are upset at the new draft's suggestion that the general assembly concept be replaced by an electoral system. With most syndicates maintaining several branches in different governorates, the new draft law stipulates that each branch, as well as the syndicate headquarters, be represented by an electoral committee. Each committee will have between five and ten elected members who will represent their branch at a general election for syndicate posts.

The critics said this type of system would not reflect a true expression of syndicate members' general will. "And in this way," Tosson told Al-Ahram Weekly, "the government would guarantee that the brotherhood would not constitute a majority at the syndicate council, since the elections of committee members will definitely be rigged."

Lawyers have been busy lobbying against the law via urgent meetings, angry statements and other attempts to pressure the government. Governmental officials have responded by saying that the new draft was yet to be finalised. According to official statements, it may take months to reach a final draft.

Mufid Shehab, the state minister for Shura Council affairs and the head of the NDP secretariat-general for professional syndicates, was quoted as saying that February's Bar Association elections would take place under Law 100. "It is difficult to imagine that the NDP would ever impose any legislation upon members of professional syndicates, without consulting them," Shehab said. "That's why we decided to subject the new draft to an extensive dialogue with the different syndicates and non- governmental organisations before referring it to the concerned bodies for endorsement."

Shehab's statements have not been much comfort for many lawyers. Mokhtar Nouh, a former Bar Association council treasurer, doubted that the February elections would even take place. "Even if the government allowed lawyers to stage elections, anti- governmental members will be marginalised," he said. Nouh predicted that the government would use certain legal manoeuvres to delay the elections until the new law is passed. "The judicial committee, for instance, may take its time in calling for the elections," he said.

Nouh himself is planning to run for a syndicate council seat. The lawyer distanced himself from the brotherhood four years ago, citing ideological differences with the group, whom he blamed for provoking the government via their never-ending attempts to dominate the syndicate council's affairs.

Internal conflicts at the association have been ongoing since the 2001 elections, resulting in a clearly weak syndicate council, two thirds of whom belong to the brotherhood. That faction has done all it can to marginalise Sameh Ashour, the syndicate's Nasserist chairman.

Ashour, for his part, has been avidly fighting back, exposing his enemies' financial irregularities, and referring them to the prosecution. Ashour has also managed to garner popular support by raising pensions and upgrading the level of services the syndicate offers its members.

One of his tactics has involved getting cozy with the government. During an annual conference held in Port Said and attended by 7000 lawyers, Ashour praised President Hosni Mubarak's role in saving the syndicate from its financial woes. Last year, Mubarak approved an amendment that stipulated a major change in the system by which lawyers' fees make their way to the syndicate's budget. The resulting windfall brought the syndicate's bank deposits up from LE59 million to LE100 million in just one year.

Ashour has also vowed to prevent the brotherhood from dominating the council in February's elections. His fear is that a brotherhood-dominated council would once again result in the syndicate being placed under judicial sequestration, which happened in 1996 as a result of several financial and administrative infringements committed by its Islamist-controlled council.

It took five years for the syndicate to obtain a court ruling in its favour, and the sequestration was finally lifted in 2001.

The brotherhood, on the other hand, is determined to win all 24 of the council's seats. Its strategy is to only field those candidates who have no other affiliations. Some observers, however, predicted that the brotherhood might change its tactics, lightening that particular requirement in response to fears that the government may use the new draft legislation to thwart the brotherhood's plans.

In any case, it is clear that the group will support anyone other than Ashour. For now, that means Raga'i Attiya, a government- backed lawyer. "There will be limits to our support," Tosson said however, and their main focus will be on the 24 council seats.

The brotherhood's support for Attiya in 2001 was not enough to catalyse his victory. Considering that both he and Ashour seem willing to go ever more pro-government, February's elections may just be another re-run.