Journalists' Syndicate Poll: 62 Contenders Compete for 7 Posts

By Nawal Sayed

CAIRO, March 13 (SEE) - Egypt's journalists are invited to cast their vote to choose six new members to join the Journalists' Syndicate's council. A total of 62 journalists are competing for seven positions.

Eleven candidates are competing to lead the syndicate, the largest number of nominees in the history of the union.

The leading contenders for the syndicate’s top position are head of the State Information Service (SIS) and former syndicate chairman Diaa Rashwan and Akhbar Al-Youm board member Refaat Rashad.

In Feb., incumbent chairman of the Journalists' Syndicate and Al-Ahram Board Chairman Abdel-Mohsen Salama announced that he won't seek a second term and would instead concentrate on his duties as chairman of Al-Ahram.

In addition, 51 candidates are fighting over the six seats available of the syndicate’s council in the mid-term election.

The majority of the candidates running for the council’s membership are from state-owned news outlets, with 11 from Al-Akhbar and Akhbar Al-Youm newspapers, seven from Al-Ahram newspaper, four from Al-Gomhouriya newspaper and three from the Middle East News Agency (MENA).

The most prominent contenders for the six seats are Khaled Mery, editor-in-chief of Al-Akhbar newspaper, Hesham Younes, belonging to Al-Ahram, Haitham El-Newihi, from Al-Akhbar, Mohamed Shabana from Al-Ahram and Youssef Ayoub, editor-in-chief of Sout Al-Ouma portal.

Many contenders succeeded to make dozens of achievements to encourage voters to give them their votes.

[caption id="attachment_40621" align="aligncenter" width="523"] Al-Akhbar's Editor-in-Chief Khaled Mery[/caption]

Al-Akhbar's Mery succeeded to obtain a huge discount on 33 Cars' brands to journalists. In addition, he vowed to increase the technology's allowance to reach 2100 LE.

The syndicate also launched an information center in one of the training halls in the third floor for the colleagues who are covering the elections.

[caption id="attachment_40661" align="aligncenter" width="669"] Youssef Ayoub (Left) and Mohamed Shabana (Right)- Archive Photo[/caption]

After the election ends, the council will discuss many issues related to the budget and modification of the syndicate's bylaw.

The voting will begin from 3 pm to 7 pm on Friday.

Akhbar Al-Youm’s Rashad said that he was standing to “protect fellow journalists and freedom of expression” and would prioritize the cases of journalists who had been expelled from their workplaces as well as fighting for increases in wages and pensions.

[caption id="attachment_40624" align="aligncenter" width="608"] Akhbar Al-Youm’s Refaat Rashad[/caption]

The last Press Syndicate elections were held in 2017 when Salama was elected as head.