CAIRO, 23 April 2005 — As the countdown begins for the presidential and parliamentary elections in Egypt this fall, judges are upping the ante with the country’s executive authority by withholding their agreement to supervise the polls. The latest chapter in the tiff with the government came when several judges said the Ministry of Justice asked heads of low-level courts to give written support for the idea of judicial supervision of elections, the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yaum reported yesterday.
The response was mixed, said the paper, with some judges granting their assent and others refusing. The ministry’s move came on the heels of a meeting last week by some 1,500 judges in the coastal city of Alexandria where they announced that they would supervise elections only if granted control over the entire process and the full independence of the judiciary.
One judge said the ministry’s request underlined the need for greater independence. “What happened confirms what we’ve said previously about the executive authority intervening and pressuring heads of specific courts,” Mahmoud Mekki of the Court of Cassation (the highest court of appeals) told Al-Masry Al-Yaum. “The measure underlines the fairness of our demands,” he added.
In recent months judges have grumbled about the prospect of being put in the position of giving the stamp of approval to elections that are less than fair.
