CAIRO, 7 April 2005 — Egypt’s judges have rallied mounting calls for political reforms, asking for a long-due separation of powers between the judicial and executive branches and threatening to disturb upcoming presidential polls. The Egyptian Judges’ Club — Egypt’s equivalent of a judges’ union — presented a draft law to Parliament via left-wing opposition MP Abul Ezz Al-Hariri late last month that seeks to amend the current judiciary law and guarantee their independence from the executive branch.
“A new judiciary law must be passed during the current parliamentary session (ending in June) before we consider supervising any future elections,” said a statement released by the Judges’ Club general assembly in Alexandria. The judges are due to meet on April 14 and examine whether “to abstain from supervising the elections if a new law is not passed”, one union member told AFP. Some are “even calling for a sit-in or a strike but we’re trying to dissuade them because we want to resort to dialogue and rather than a confrontation”, added Hisham Bastawissi, who also sits on Egypt’s court of cassation.
Earlier this year, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak asked lawmakers to amend the constitution to allow for the first multi-candidate presidential elections in Egypt’s history, set to be held in September. Legislative polls will take place in October or November 2005. “We believe that the independence of the judiciary is linked to the elections because a judge cannot be independent if he doesn’t have the authority to supervise each and every phase of the electoral process,” said Bastawissi.
“This ranges from controlling the electoral register to announcing the final results and the process cannot be transparent and properly supervised if it is overseen by the executive authorities and especially the ministry of interior,” Hisham Bastawissi told AFP. “Under the current law, the state usurps the powers of the judiciary and places them in the hands of the interior minister, and the executive appoints all seven members of the supreme council of judges,” he added in reference to the six council chiefs and the attorney general. Egypt’s Justice Minister Mahmud Abu El-Leil said last week a preparatory committee had been set up examine a new judiciary law. “This is only meant to postpone examining the Judges’ Club draft law for another number of years,” charged Bastawissi.
Meanwhile, several hundred students affiliated with Egypt’s banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood movement organized a pro-reform march on Alexandria University’s campus yesterday, an AFP reporter witnessed. “Students tell the rais (president) that one amendment is not enough!” and “say it in unison: one amendment is not enough!” chanted students from the engineering faculty.
