Egypt's Journalists Syndicate on Tuesday decided to hold elections for board memberships on 26 October, after the Supreme Administrative Court revoked a prior lower court ruling cancelling the elections. Syndicate Secretary Hatem Zakaria told the Middle East News Agency that runoffs for the chairman position would be held on 9 November if no candidate won the first round. “We may hold the elections before that date to account for the Hajj season, as the first delegation of pilgrims leaves on 25 October,” said acting syndicate chief Salah Abdel Maqsoud. On Thursday, the State Council's Administrative Court halted the elections following a lawsuit raised by Khaled al-Atfy, a nominee for the syndicate's board, who said in his petition that Abdel Maqsoud had violated syndicate regulations when calling for the elections, as rules stipulate that elections should be proposed by an elected syndicate chief, not an acting one. The elections were scheduled for last Friday, but delayed due to the court ruling. The syndicate's former chief, Makram Mohamed Ahmed, a loyal supporter of former President Hosni Mubarak, resigned in February following protests from journalists demanding his removal. In a meeting in September, the syndicate's board decided to hold elections for a new chief and a new board. Its legal committee started accepting nominations from 17 to 21 September. The syndicate said in a statement on Thursday that it had provided the court with documents proving that the decision to hold elections was made unanimously by its board members, and not individually by its acting chief. Translated from the Arabic Edition
