By Heba Fahmy
CAIRO: The Judges’ Club issued a statement on Tuesday condemning the security forces’ detainment of and violations against Councilor Walid El-Shafei while he was monitoring a polling station in Badrashin district during Sunday’s parliamentary elections.
The statement said that the Judges’ Club will stand against any attempt to violate judges’ dignity or status.
The statement added that the Judges’ Club will continue to work with the general prosecution and the Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC) to protect its members from any violations, as well as to penalize those who attempt to impede this protection.
El-Shafei was detained in the polling station at Badrashin School by the area’s chief of detectives, at which time he detected several violations — including the prevention of voters from entering the polling station and the rigging of votes in favor of National Democratic Party (NDP) female candidates Momena Kamel and Nermine Badrawi.
“Detaining a judge and taking his ID card without any justification is a violation of his rights,” Councilor Mahmoud Al-Sherif, secretary general of the Judges’ Club, told Daily News Egypt. “The person responsible for this incident must be persecuted and arrested if he is proven guilty.
“A deterrent penalty needs to be taken in situations like this to protect the status of judges in our community.”
The judge was released the same day he was detained following an intervention made by the head of the General Committee of Judges responsible for monitoring the elections.
El-Shafei filed a complaint to the SEC regarding the incident, which it is currently investigating.
El-Shafei also accused the security forces at the Badrashin School polling station of preventing and mistreating a government official who was performing his duties — a complaint that he formally filed with the Giza public prosecution office this week.
“Our responsibility is to protect the members of the Judges’ Club from any violations, while our members’ responsibility is to protect the people from any violations and protect their rights, which is exactly what El-Shafei did,” said Al-Sherif.
The NDP described this incident on their official website as an “individual” incident, if it’s proven to be true.
The NDP’s website also stated that 2,600 judges had observed the polling stations in different areas and hadn’t filed any complaints.
“I expected these violations to take place, and asked the judges not to monitor the elections unless they were guaranteed that they would be able to perform their duties without any interference from the government,” Councilor Noha Al-Zeiny told Daily News Egypt.
“The violations against judges have crossed all boundaries,” Al-Zeiny said. “The judges should’ve been guaranteed that they could perform their duties and actually monitor the elections instead of having a fake observation.”
Al-Sherif disagreed, using El-Shafei’s actions as proof that the judges do indeed perform their duties and monitor the elections with integrity and transparency, despite the obstacles they face in doing so.
In 2005, there was direct supervision from judges over each ballot box in every polling station, but in this years’ elections the judges stayed in the security directorate in each constituency and received complaints from observers and citizens.
The judges were provided with cars to tour the polling stations and to follow-up on any complaints they received.
According to Al-Sherif, the Ministry of Justice was involved in selecting the judges who monitored the elections.
According to Al-Sherif, the Ministry of Justice provided the Supreme Judicial Council with the list of judges chosen to monitor the elections. The council then delegated the final judges selected to monitor the elections from the list.
In 2005, the judges filed their reports directly to the Ministry of Justice. Now, the judges file their reports to the SEC — a new entity that replaced judiciary supervision of ballot boxes and elections — which has incited criticism from activists calling for fair elections.
The SEC was formed as an independent committee responsible for the elections process following the 2007 Constitutional amendments. Opposition groups and human rights organizations state that the committee carries out orders that it receives from the standing government.
“[There were more] violations against the judges … in the 2005 elections because the judges had more authority and responsibility in monitoring the elections,” Ahmed Mekky, the vice president of the Cassation Court and former head of the elections committee monitoring the elections in 2005, told Daily News Egypt.
“In the 2005 elections, judges were attacked and beaten — including Judge Mahmoud Hamza — who broke his arm during the elections,” said Al-Zeiny.
“In 2005, it was hard to rig the ballots because there were judges at each ballot box,” Mekky said. “But the truth is [that] elections in Egypt have always been corrupt.”
Egypt’s parliamentary elections took off on Sunday amid wide accusations of fraud, which included allegations of ballot stuffing, preventing the entry of opposition candidates’ representatives from entering polling stations, and preventing opposition party supporters from voting.
The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) — Egypt’s largest opposition group — did not win any seats according to the results of the preliminary election, despite having won 88 seats in 2005 and representing nearly 20 percent of the outgoing parliament.
