Mona El-Ghobashy

Although Egyptian judges have been tasked with supervising elections since 1956, it was only in 2005 that they launched a concerted and high-profile mobilization for full and meaningful supervision. Why was 2005 different? And will all future Egyptian elections feature judicial collective action on the same scale as 2005? Mona El-Ghobashy will discuss the 2005 Egyptian elections, exploring the dynamic relationship between the judiciary, the executive, and the public at a time of political ferment in Egypt.

Mona El-Ghobashy is an instructor in the political science department at Columbia. Her work on Egyptian politics has been published in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, and Transparency International's Global Corruption Report 2004. Her article "Egypt's Paradoxical Elections" appears in the spring 2006 issue of Middle East Report.