Egypt facing judicial rebellion

BBC NEWS reports Judges in Egypt have refused to oversee September's presidential election unless new legislation is passed guaranteeing their independence. They also want assurances they will be allowed to oversee all stages of the electoral process. More than 2,000 judges backed the demands at a Cairo meeting of the judge's club, an elected body of Egypt's judiciary. This is an unprecedented show of defiance to the Egyptian government. The Egyptian government is used to getting its own way, but now it is facing a revolt from a key branch in the state.

Gee, running a totalitarian government is hard when a key branch does not go along.

The country's judges have voted massively to refrain from supervising presidential elections later this year unless the government agrees to their demands. They want parliament to adopt legislation that would make the judiciary completely independent of government control. They also want to supervise all stages of the election, from the preparation of voters' lists to the announcement of results. There was no mistaking the anger of the judges who attended the Cairo meeting. Speaker after speaker said the judiciary refused to function as a tool in the hands of the government to legitimise fraudulent elections. They complained that in elections five years ago they were restricted to overseeing the actual casting of ballots, while outside voting stations police erected barricades to prevent opposition supporters from entering. The judges agreed they would meet again in September to consider the response to any concessions the government might offer.

We may have another country where Democracy could break out.

The meeting was due to be broadcast live by al-Jazeera television, but the station says police arrested its crew to prevent the transmission. Authorities appear to have decided the fury of the judges was too incendiary to broadcast to the general public.

Charles Paul Freund blogged Here's an unexpected wrinkle in the continuing saga of Egyptian electoral reform: The BBC is reporting a "judicial rebellion" on the Nile. "Judges in Egypt," says the Beeb's lede, "have refused to oversee September's presidential election unless new legislation is passed guaranteeing their independence." The judges also want "to oversee all stages of the electoral process." In previous uncontested presidential referenda (the BBC refers to these as "elections"), the judges were limited to overseeing the actual casting of ballots. Although they apparently observed opposition supporters being prevented by police from entering polling places, the judges lacked legal standing to intervene. In short, they were used by the Mubarak regime as a legal cover to legitimize its presidential circus. Their refusal to continue to be used in this way "is an unprecedented show of defiance to the Egyptian government."

Essentially, they've taken hostage Mubarak's severely hedged electoral reforms that purport to make contested presidential elections possible. Unless Mubarak agrees to their demands, the judges won't supervise the elections; that will leave Mubarak without a legal cover. The Kifaya movement had already denounced Mubarak's reforms, and began calling for an electoral boycott that, if successful, would embarrass a regime claiming to be democratizing. Now the judiciary is using the reform debate for its own purposes.
Obviously, democratization in the region will require not merely the constitutional enumeration of rights (many regional despotisms have long featured worthless constitutions), but independent judiciaries that will protect those rights. In that context, a challenge to the regime by Egypt's judges is potentially a significant development. Now it's Mubarak's turn. The judges say they will meet in September to consider any concessions from the regime.