CAIRO: Journalists Diaa Rashwan and Makram Mohamed Ahmed will be at the forefront of a rerun of the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate's elections this Sunday after neither candidate was able to secure the 50-perecent-plus-one votes required for the chairman position. Ahmed, the current chairman of the syndicate, received 1,497 votes, while Rashwan, deputy head of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, secured 1,458 votes. According to the law, a winner must secure 50 percent plus one of the general assembly's votes. Rashwan, who is running under the slogan "Together for Change, described last Sunday's election day as "amazing, huge, beautiful and expected, he told Daily News Egypt. "I wasn't going to run for the chairman position to begin with as people from all walks of life were certain that the results were definitely going to be in Ahmed's favor, said Rashwan. "There are two major factors that affected yesterday's results. First, not all of my supporters showed up to give their vote as they weren't confident and second is the alliance all the editor-in-chiefs of the state-owned newspapers have formed against me by staying all day and campaigning for Ahmed, he explained. "I'm predicting victory next Sunday, because this alliance cannot do any more than what it's already done. But we still have a lot to give and the results have given hope and encouragement to the people who were reluctant before, Rashwan noted. On the other hand, Ahmed, who was not available for comment when contacted by Daily News Egypt, told local news reports that he has nothing to worry about, as the journalists are well informed and will make the right decision. This election for the syndicate's chairman position is a run-off of the 2007 Journalists' Syndicate's elections activated by an administrative court ruling last October that has invalidated the results. Following the 2007 elections in which current head Ahmed won, Fayez Zayed, chief editor of Akhbar El-Parlaman (Parliament News) magazine, and Khalil Fathi, deputy editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi newspaper, had raised the case, saying they were disqualified from participating in the elections by the election committee. The court ruling supported the two editors' claim that the committee's decision was unjustified and ordered a run-off.
