Pressure on Egyptian president as more judges refuse to oversee referendum

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is currently undergoing more pressure as more judicial institutions have recently decided to boycott supervising the second and final phase of the constitutional referendum slated for Dec. 22.

The board of the Administrative Prosecution's Counselors Club announced Wednesday boycotting the supervision of the constitutional referendum, preceding a similar decision of Egypt's State Council, the country's administrative court, to boycott the referendum, raising concerns over the shortage of supervising judges during the voting process.

The rebellious judicial institutions have already taken part in the first round of the referendum Saturday, but they now argue that their preconditions had not been met, including life insurance for supervising judges, an end to the Islamist sit-in outside the Supreme Constitutional Court and non-interference in the independence of the judicial authority.

"If judges of the Administrative Court stick to the decision of State Council's Judges Club, certainly there will be shortage of supervising judges in the second round of constitutional referendum," Counselor Mohamed Hassan, State Council Deputy Chairman, told Xinhua.

"The decision of the Administrative Prosecution to boycott referendum will make it more complicated in terms of sufficient judicial supervision of the referendum," he warned.

"The judges exercise pressure on presidency to work on ending the sit-in of President Morsi's supporters outside the Constitutional Court. There were 7,000 judges overseeing the first round of referendum. If the 3,000 judges of the State Council boycott the second round, each judge will have supervise six or seven ballot boxes instead of one box,prepreg" said political analyst Ali Hassan, deputy editor-in-chief of official news agency MENA.

"Full judicial supervision of referendum will be impossible," he added, and blamed presidency for the ongoing crisis. "There is no time to find a way out of the crisis at the moment. There could have been a solution earlier if the presidency delayed the constitutional referendum as demanded by Copts, judges, journalists, lawyers and the political forces."

Some legal experts believe that despite the above concerns, the decisions of the Administrative Prosecution and the State Council are symbolic as they are not obligatory for their judges.

"They are symbolic decisions,adhesive film" Atef Labib al-Najmy, legal expert and head of the Arab Defense Association, told Xinhua.Many knife sets will include knives that are designed for slicing cake or bread. These knife sets will usually be serrated. You should not forget to factor steak knives in a knife set as these will be important when you are hosting guests for barbecue. " They just contribute to the political life in Egypt but in reality they have a weak effect on supervision of the constitutional referendum."

In other words, those judges have the liberty to choose whether or not to supervise the second round of referendum, and their clubs have no authority to force them to boycott.

There is also a financial reward set for each judge supervising the referendum, varying between 3,000 and 20,000 Egyptian pounds ( about 500 to 3,200 U.S.carbon sheets dollars), according to Najmy.

"Only those judges with certain political attitudes, who are very few, would give up the financial reward and choose to boycott the referendum," Najmy noted.

In this regard, Hassan said "When we accepted to supervise referendum in the first phase, we announced that we would do it in return for nothing, we accepted it a national duty. It lowers the status of a judge to take part for money."

Head of Egypt's Judges Club Ahmed al-Zend said Wednesday that his club is committed to the opinion of the overwhelming majority of Egyptian judges will not oversee the constitutional referendum.

Under such judicial pressure, Morsi did not act to put an end to the sit-in of his supporters outside the Constitutional Court, raising questions about his power over his Islamist supporters, particularly those of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), who helped him come to power.

In an attempt to release the pressure and bridge the gap between presidency and its opponents,cc composite the presidency held Wednesday the fourth round of national dialogue with opposition and political forces.

The meeting, held under the auspices of Morsi and Vice President Mahmoud Mekki, concluded that in case the draft constitution would be approved, they would discuss the laws for parliamentary elections and the controversial articles of the new constitution to be amended and submitted to the new parliament; and in case the draft constitution be refused, they would discuss the laws of electing a new constitution-writing assembly in the upcoming dialogue sessions.

A few parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood (MB)'s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), liberal Ghad al-Thawra (Future of Revolution), Al-Wasat (Moderation), Al-Hadara (Civilization), Al- Adl (Justice) and Masr al-Qawiya (Strong Egypt) and Egypt Party joined the session.

The main opposition bloc dubbed "National Salvation Front," led by ex-diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei and former presidential candidate Amr Moussa along with other political figures, turned down Morsi's invitation for dialogue from the very beginning earlier this month.