Muddy waters
On Sunday morning Farouk Sultan, head of the judicial committee that supervises polls at professional syndicates, announced that independent lawyer Hamdi Khalifa was the new chairman of the Bar Association. Khalifa won 35,842 votes. His closest rival was former syndicate chairman Sameh Ashour who secured 30,238 votes. NDP lawyer Ragaai Atteya gained 4,146, and Talaat El-Sadat 3,728 votes.
It took the judicial committee 12 hours to announce the name of the new chairman. By Saturday afternoon, when polls closed, 75,166 lawyers had cast their votes. The announcement of the names of council seat winners was delayed until Monday morning, leading some to suggest that the results may have been rigged.
The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) failed to secure a majority, winning just 18 out of a total of 46 seats. Twenty seats went to the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) while the remaining eight seats were shared between opposition party members and independents. The MB, heartened by the victory of Khalifa, whom it had supported, was shell-shocked when the council results were announced the following day.
"After Sameh Ashour lost the chairmanship the regime decided to take revenge on the MB by rigging the poll for council seats," MB lawyer Mohamed Tosson told Al-Ahram Weekly.
The MB is considering the possibility of filing a lawsuit to contest the results.
Having failed to win a majority on the council the MB will be excluded from any leading posts within the association though sources close to the group say it will try to court the eight independent and opposition lawyers in the hope of forming a working majority.
Many lawyers now expect the council to be mired in internal divisions.
"When seats are divided between two fighting camps, the NDP and the MB, the council's performance inevitably suffers," said leftist lawyer Ahmed Qenawi. He also predicts that Ashour, waiting in the wings, will seek the earliest opportunity to call for a vote of no confidence.
During a press conference held at the headquarters of the Bar Association on Monday Khalifa -- who has chaired the Giza branch of the syndicate since 2001 -- told reporters he would work as part of a team and that no one will be excluded or marginalised. He called upon members of the general assembly to supervise the performance of the newly elected council.
Khalifa called upon his rivals to put aside their differences and work together to serve the interests of lawyers. He also announced plans to renovate the syndicate's headquarters and construct new housing projects for members.
That Ashour, who is reputed to have unlimited backing from the NDP, failed to secure the post of chairman, is being seen as a blow to the government. Senior NDP figures moved quickly to deny that the party had backed Ashour, though the post-defeat statements contradicted earlier ones by Said El-Far, the NDP official in charge of legal affairs, who had argued repeatedly that Ashour was the NDP's choice.
A few hours before the polls El-Far said that the NDP had mobilised its supporters behind Ashour and urged lawyers to back the former chairman.
Ashour's hostility to the MB may have recommended him to the government but Ashour himself seemed aware that the regime's backing was a two- edged sword. He deliberately sought to distance himself from the ruling party, criticising El-Far's statements as "irresponsible".
That Ashour would hand control of the syndicate to the government was a charge levelled by all of his rivals, and one that appears to have resonated with voters. Immediately after the poll, however, some of Ashour's supporters seemed to further muddy the waters. "After Ashour made it clear that he did not need NDP support the ruling party decided to back Khalifa in order to punish Ashour," argued Saber Ammar, a left-leaning lawyer.
Tosson dismisses Ammar's argument as nonsense: "Khalifa's record at the Giza syndicate of lawyers, where he improved living standards and services, boosted his chances of winning, as did the MB vote."
The MB came out in favour of Khalifa following the first round of voting on 23 May, when Khalifa emerged as a prime contender.
In the 2001 and 2005 polls the MB supported Atteya, who failed to win.
According to Tosson, unlike Ashour, Khalifa's first priority will be lawyers' interests.
"This does not mean that he will neglect the syndicate's national role, totally marginalised during the last eight years."
Ashour's perceived alliance with the government was not the only reason behind his failure to retain the chairman's seat. "Recent revelations of financial infringements, as well as general dissatisfaction with his style of running the syndicate, all counted against him," says independent lawyer Fatemah Rabie.
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