Journalists to vote THE FIRST Press Syndicate elections after the 25 January Revolution are scheduled to take place tomorrow. Journalists will vote for the 12-member council and a chairman. Three candidates are vying for the post of chairman and 103 are competing to become members of the new council. The elections come at a turbulent time when a clear vision of Egypt's future is lacking. The new chairman and council will be coming at a time of instability, upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections and a constitution which will be rewritten. Mamdouh El-Wali, deputy editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram daily and believed to enjoy Brotherhood support, and Yehia Qallash, a journalist at the daily Al-Gomhouriya and known to be a Nasserist, are the frontrunners for the chairmanship of the syndicate. Despite having different agendas, both insist that a strong council is necessary for the union to weather the challenges it faces and to have an active role in the country's future. Qallash says the most important task facing the next chairman is to change all freedom-restricting laws on the press and to become financially independent of the state. He argues that the syndicate should be strong to pressure the coming government into making the changes necessary to have a free press. El-Wali agrees with Qallash but believes that priority should be given to boosting the syndicate financially. According to El-Wali, the pension fund, the housing project and other services offered to syndicate members have suffered since the 2007 syndicate polls as a result of budgetary deficits. Increasing syndicate resources via a draft law which has been shelved for years will help solve the financial crisis, he says. El-Wali is also in favour of setting minimum salaries for journalists. El-Wali appeared keen to distance himself from the Muslim Brotherhood, whose support he reportedly enjoys. "I am not the candidate of the Brotherhood or of any other political trend. I am running in the polls as an independent. Involving politics in the work of unions undermines their performance." But in the end many votes will be determined by which political trend journalists support. Arguments claim that if the chairman is an MB supporter, then the Brothers will have complete power in all of the country's syndicates. An expected majority of the parliament's seats will also give the Brotherhood the upper hand in the country's decision-making. Other journalists argue that they should vote in terms of who they believe will correctly represent them. As for the 103 competing for the 12 member council, six who have been members of the syndicate for more than 15 years are to be chosen. The remaining six should have served as journalists for less than 15 years. The number of youths who seek a council seat is more than double, encouraged by the revolution and the recent tendency by youths to venture into the decision-making process. Half of the syndicate's members, according to the professional syndicates law, should register their name before 12 noon tomorrow. If not, the elections will be postponed a week. SCA protests continue TEMPORARY employees at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) are continuing to protest despite being permanently appointed at the council, which was their main demand. Almost a week into holding the antiquities portfolio, Mustafa Amin, secretary-general of the SCA, kept his promise and appointed the first batch of temporary staff. Still, they gathered in front of the SCA building in Abbasiya protesting against the appointment contracts provided by the SCA and the cabinet. According to the cabinet release, previous years of experience and service in the SCA are not counted. Hassan Ali, an employee, said articles in the new contract treat temporary staff "as if they are new graduates" since their previous years of experience at the SCA are not counted. Such articles, Ali added, will have its disadvantages in salaries, social insurance and pensions. To calm things down, Amin issued an urgent report asserting that Article 47 of the labour law of 1984 stipulates that contractors who are appointed have the right to include the duration of their previous service in their work report. In the release Amin confirmed that the law is more powerful than any newly taken decisions and all procedures are to be immediately taken to appoint 4,065 employees from the temporary staff who represent 25 per cent of the total number of temporary employees. The second batch will include 16,261 employees. Reservoir to end leakage FOLLOWING a nine-month halt, an Egyptian- American archaeological, scientific and architectural mission resumed the ground water lowering project in Luxor. The project aims at decreasing the salty subterranean water level that affected the foundation stones of five temples in Luxor: Karnak and Luxor temples on the east bank, Seti I, Ramessium, Meneptah and Haremhab on the west bank. To mark the resumption, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Mustafa Amin and US Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson, along with Luxor Governor Ezzat Saad and the head of the National Authority of Drinking Water and Sanitation Mohamed Mohsen inaugurated the project. The project, which started in 2007 at a cost of LE50 million provided by the USAID, aims at reducing the subterranean water under these temples by accumulating it in a huge reservoir connected to the main Luxor city drainage system. Amin told Ahram online that the reservoir will be able to gather 1,100 cubic metres of water every hour. He said archaeologists will monitor the structural integrity of these temples in order to fix damage that could occur to any of the temple blocks. Work between the SCA and the USAID started in 1993 when almost 70 archaeological projects were conducted in excavation, restoration and training skills for curators. Relief retrieved EGYPTIAN Tourism and Antiquities Police have recovered an ancient Egyptian limestone relief reported missing in the wake of the January Revolution. The relief, which was discovered by a Czech archaeological mission in Abusir, is one metre tall and 60cm in width. It depicts four walking geese lined with hieroglyphic text. Atef Abul-Dahab, head of the Ancient Egyptian Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), told Al-Ahram Weekly that the engraving was among those looted in Abusir storages following the security breakdown during the revolution. An archaeological mission from the SCA inspected the relief and approved its authenticity. It is now in police custody and will be taken tomorrow to an SCA lab for restoration. It then may be put on a special display at the Egyptian Museum.
