[Mb-civic] CBC News - EGYPTIAN JUDGES THREATEN TO BOYCOTT ELECTION DUTIES

Sat May 14 08:08:41 PDT 2005

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EGYPTIAN JUDGES THREATEN TO BOYCOTT ELECTION DUTIES
WebPosted Fri May 13 23:07:16 2005

CAIRO, Egypt---Egyptian judges have refused to supervise September's
presidential election unless the government passes laws that give them
sole authority to oversee the poll.

The decision was passed almost unanimously by 2,500 of the country's
8,000 judges, who met in Cairo on Friday for the Judges' Club
General Assembly.

The judges also demanded a separate law be passed to guarantee the
independence of the judiciary, which has long been under the thumb of
President Hosni Mubarak's government.

If the judges persist in a boycott, they would strike a real blow to the
credibility of an election.

The government has been touting it as a democratic reform, because
multiple candidates will be able to run against Mubarak for the
first time.

                       FROM FEB. 26, 2005: Mubarak
                        calls for election reform

Judicial supervision of elections is also required under the
constitution.

And Mubarak's government has faced increasing pressure, both at home and
abroad, to move faster on democratic reforms.

Previous elections have been marred by widespread accusations of vote
rigging and intimidation.

The judges complained Friday that the government had used them to paint
those votes as legitimate, while rendering their participation
ineffective.

Under a new law, the election was to be supervised by a commission
consistently half of judges and half of political appointees.

The judiciary insisted Friday that it consist solely of judges.

They also demanded that their salaries no longer be paid through the
Justice Ministry &#8211; a situation they say curbs their independence.

Mubarak has been the Egyptian president for 24 years.