Fierce competition between the Muslim Brotherhood and a list of independents in the Doctors Syndicate elections ended with the Brotherhood dominating the syndicate's board. Independent candidates, meanwhile, reaped initial gains in the syndicate's subcommittees across the nation. Saad al-Fatatany, the electoral panel's chief, said the syndicate's top seat went to Kahiry Abdel Dayem, who ran for Doctors for Egypt, a Brotherhood-backed list which encountered vehement competition from the Independent Doctors, supported by liberal and revolutionary groups. The syndicate is expected to officialy announce its elections results Sunday afternoon. The Muslim Brotherhood's website said the group won 20 seats out of 24 in the syndicate's board. Meanwhile, initial vote counts indicate good gains for the Independent Doctors in the syndicate's subcommittees. While Doctors for Egypt candidate Saad Zahgloul al-Ashmawy was elected head of Cairo's Doctors Syndicate, the Independence List and Egypt's Doctors' Coalition won the majority of its board seats. In Giza, the syndicate's subcommittee presidency went to Abdel Nasser Saqr, another Doctors for Egypt nominee, and the Brotherhood also took over the board. Independent daily Tahrir News on Sunday quoted Abdel Dayem as expressing his gladness for the victory, saying that his electoral bid had been faced with a smear campaign. He told the newspaper that the Brotherhood did not seek to dominate the syndicate. "Those are lies, it cannot happen," he argued. In July, the Brotherhood made another landslide victory in the Pharmacists Syndicate elections, winning 22 out of 25 seats, including its top post, now chaired by senior member Mohamed Abdel Gawwad.
