Judges Launch Petition Demanding Exemption from Supervising Upcoming Presidential Election

 A number of judges on the sidelines of tertiary-term elections of the Judges Club, began a campaign to collect signatures on a memorandum calling for them to be exempted from supervising the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary election, to be submitted to Ahmed Serri Siam, head of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). "Egypt’s judges have been appalled by mass electoral fraud, blatant violations, suspension of court decisions, hostilities that were committed against some of the judges supervising the election process, voter intimidation and bullying under the absence of real judicial supervision in the People’s Assembly and the Shura Council in the last two years," the memo stated.
 
"Experiment has shown that the role of public commissions and the Higher Election Commission (HEC) is limited to only sorting boxes, counting votes and announcing results, a role that could be played by any party charged with organizing elections, and to exempt judges from any action attributed to them without completely supervising it," they added in their statement.
 
Geneidi Al-Wakeel, head of Minya’s Criminal Court and one of judges who signed the warrant, called on the general assembly of judges to take a unified position on cancelling judicial supervision of the elections, adding that the recent parliamentary elections were marred by violence and irregularities that triggered judges to annihilate in the next phase.
 
According to judicial sources, the tertiary-term elections of the Judges Club has seen a sharp fall in turnout.