CAIRO: Journalist Makram Mohamed Ahmed won a second term as the Journalists' Syndicate chairman in a Sunday run-off against Diaa Rashwan. Ahmed raked 2,419 votes, while Rashwan, deputy head of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, received 1,561. This election is a run-off of the 2007 Journalists' Syndicate's election results which were invalidated by an administrative court ruling last October. The first round of elections was held last Sunday but neither candidate was able to secure the 50-percent-plus-one votes required to secure the top seat. Rashwan, who ran under the campaign slogan "Together for Change, criticized what he refers to as "the alliance of all the editors-in-chief of state-owned newspapers who strongly supported Ahmed by staging a sit-in at the syndicate's headquarters all day and possibly pressuring journalists in their organizations to vote for him. However, journalists had predicted the outcome to be in Ahmed's favor. One journalist from an opposition newspaper, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that "Rashwan is young. he was running under a slogan that included 'change' and this would never have succeeded in Egypt where old policies and institutions are in power and fight anything close to change. Under the Journalists' Syndicate's bylaws the chairman is elected every two years and can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms. Ahmed, who is currently a columnist at the state-owned flagship Al-Ahram, had previously served two terms in the 1990s. Both candidates denied allegations related to their affiliation, whether it was Ahmed being the government candidate or Rashwan being the Muslim Brotherhood candidate merely because he is an expert on Islamist movements. "Everyone knows I'm a Nasserist and am not representing the Muslim Brotherhood in any way, said Rashwan. The Journalists' Syndicate includes approximately 5,600 members employed in state-owned, independent and opposition publications.
