CAIRO: Egypt’s most senior judges announced yesterday they would delegate judicial officers to oversee a referendum on a controversial draft constitution, overriding calls for a boycott amid growing popular unrest.
The judges’ decision brings a measure of relief to President Mohammed Mursi even as pressure mounts against him in the streets, with the opposition calling a new protest rally today.
The new charter, which was rushed through by the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly after Mursi on November 22 issued a decree expanding his powers, has become the focal point of Egypt’s biggest political crisis since the president was elected in June.
Mursi’s decree and the adoption of the constitution by an Islamist-dominated panel has polarised Islamist and largely secular forces with Cairo becoming the theatre of mass rival rallies.
The latest demonstration is scheduled for 1400 GMT on Tuesday, when a coalition of opposition groups, including Nobel Laureate Mohamed ElBaradei’s party and supporters of former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi, are to rally outside the presidential palace to oppose the charter and the referendum.
But the Supreme Judicial Council’s announcement that judges would after all monitor the December 15 nationwide referendum required for the draft constitution to pass into law comes as a blow to Mursi’s opponents, including judges, who had hoped to delegitimise the vote.
Mohammed Gadallah, Mursi’s legal aide, said the decision meant that the referendum would after all take place under judicial supervision. “The largest body responsible for judges is the Supreme Judicial Council,” Gadallah said. “They realised they had a responsibility before the nation to supervise.
“This means, it’s over,” he said when asked whether it was still possible for the vote to be boycotted by judges.
On Sunday, the Judges Club, which represents judges nationwide, said it would not oversee the referendum on the new constitution.
Judicial anger at Mursi’s decree, which puts his decisions beyond the review of the courts, rages on however and on Monday judges began an open-ended strike.
The Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) suspended its work indefinitely due to “psychological and material pressure” following a protest by Mursi supporters which judges said prevented them from delivering a key ruling that might have dissolved the panel that drafted the charter.
They had intended to hold the session in defiance of Mursi’s decree, which barred them from making a ruling on the charter or the Islamist-dominated senate. The court had previously disbanded parliament.AFP
