The Muslim Brotherhood's candidates won the lion's share of seats in Thursday's Lawyers Syndicate board elections, getting 60 percent of the votes. Sameh Ashour, who ran against the Brotherhood-supported Wafd Party candidate, won the chairmanship. The board consists of a chairman and 44 members, 15 of whom are elected from the syndicate and 29 from the courts of first instance of the governorates. The Brotherhood supported Islamist Mohamed Kamel of the Wafd Party for the chairmanship, but he came in second place, behind Ashour by 17,000 votes. Observers were not surprised by the results, as Ashour had won the chairmanship twice before in 2001 and 2005, and the Brotherhood has performed many favors for syndicate members. “Ashour was able to win the votes of Coptic lawyers and others with secular inclinations,” said syndicate member Ahmed Fawzy. “And the Brotherhood won because there is an organized Islamist trend within the syndicate.” The Muslim Brotherhood does not normally field candidates for the chairmanship of syndicates. It prefers to win majority of seats on governing boards in order to gain control and political power, as it did earlier this year when it swept teacher and pharmacist syndicate elections. The group is seeking wide representation in the 100-member constituent assembly that will be tasked with writing the new constitution following the upcoming parliamentary elections. The ruling military council had said it will select members from different syndicates and unions for the committee. Meanwhile, a number of lawyers challenged the elections' results in the Court of Cassation, arguing that the supervising judicial committee mistakenly counted 35,000 invalid votes. In the event that the court accepts the appeal, the committee will have to recount the votes.
