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The post-Hosni Mubarak National Assembly and Shur’a Council elections that will take place over a period of about four months starting on November 21 will be organized by a High Election Commission (HEC) controlled by the judiciary rather than by the Ministry of Interior, as has mostly been the case in Egypt. This was an important victory for the protesters who brought down the Mubarak regime and included judicial supervision of elections among their demands.
Article 39 of the interim constitution promulgated by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on March 30 specifies that the HEC will be chaired by the head of the Cairo Court of Appeal and composed entirely of judges. Although the HEC is not under the supervisions of the Ministry of Interior, it can request the assistance of any state agency in carrying out its tasks. Restoration of full judicial supervision of the electoral process was an important demand of the demonstrators during the uprising because Egyptians associate clean elections with judicial supervision, and the creation of a commission staffed entirely by judges was seen as an important victory.
Details of the formation and membership of the commission are outlined in the amended Article 3 of Law 73 of 1956 as follows:
- President of the Cairo Court of Appeal as Chair
- The two highest ranking deputies of the President of the Court of Cassation
- The two highest ranking deputies of the President of the State Council
- The two highest ranking members of the Cairo Court of Appeals in line after the President of that court
The HEC will select individuals to serve on polling and counting committees, to manage voter lists and the national ID database, and to establish guidelines for domestic and international civil society organizations in their role to monitor elections.
The HEC is also tasked with issuing regulations concerning elections and referenda, and is the body responsible for responding to complaints related to the electoral process.
The electoral process as defined in the interim constitution will officially begin on September 18, when the HEC holds its first meeting. The body will supervise and administer every stage of the electoral process—from scheduling to candidate registration to the final vote count and the announcement for 2011-12 People’s Assembly and Shura Council elections.
The Evolution of Judicial Supervision
The issue of judicial supervision has been at the center of a decade-long struggle between judges and the state. The judiciary has historically been a highly revered state institution—thus, Egyptian see it as a body that can be trusted to monitor elections in an honest manner. The 1971 constitution stipulated that a judicial body must supervise elections, but before 2000, elections were administered primarily by the Ministry of Interior, with judges playing a merely perfunctory role.
On the heels of growing domestic calls for electoral reform in June 2000, the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) struck down the existing electoral law and imposed full judicial supervision of elections for the first time in Egyptian history. Despite some positive changes, however, oversight of the elections remained with the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice—responsible for administering judicial supervision—and judicial personnel selected to cover polling stations included many state prosecutors and other non-judges.
In 2005, before Egypt’s presidential and parliamentary elections, emboldened judges lobbied for increased autonomy in election monitoring. As a result, Article 76 of the constitution was amended and two independent commissions—a High Election Commission and a Presidential Election Commission—were established. The two commissions were not particularly effective in stopping all elections, but judges played an important role in ensuring a degree of integrity, at least inside polling places, and in blowing the whistle on abuses in many races. The two commissions were temporary and ceased to function following the 2005 elections, however. Furthermore, in 2007, the language of Article 88 was altered to remove elections from direct judicial supervision and place then under the control of a new body, also then named the High Election Commission (HEC), but having little or no independence. Disciplinary action was also taken against judges who continued to demand judicial supervision.
The issue of judicial supervision of elections remained a key demand of the opposition from 2007 on.
