JURIST - Paper Chase: Egyptian appeals court overturns ruling allowing monitors for presidential election

[JURIST] The Egyptian Supreme Administrative Court has overturned a lower court decision [JURIST report] allowing rights groups to monitor polling stations during the country's first multi-candidate presidential elections on Wednesday. The holding, in which the court ruled that the Presidential Election Commission's decisions are not subject to judicial review, appears to avoid conflict after the commission said it would disregard [BBC News report] the lower court ruling and bar election monitors anyway. The election, in which President Hosni Mubarak [Wikipedia profile] is widely expected to win a fifth six-year term, is the first general election that will replace a referendum system on a single presidential candidate proposed by parliament. Rights groups said the court's decision to ban monitors indicated the election would not be fair and free, although the government insists that supervision of the vote by judges as already provided for under Egyptian electoral law will avoid abuses. Brisbane's News 1 has more.

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