CAIRO: Hassan Hamdy was reelected Friday to another four-year term as the chairman of Al-Ahly Club, beating his closest rival by a large margin of votes. This is Hamdy's third consecutive term heading the club. The former 70s star first won the post in 2001. Hamdy, who competed against Mohamed Thabet Fadlallah and Ayman Sayed Youssef, won a total 16,878 out of 19,780 valid votes. Hamdy's new board includes Ahly legend Mahmoud Al-Khatib as vice chairman as well as Khaled Mortagi, Khaled Darandali, Rania Elwani, Hisham Saeed and El-Amry Farouk. El-Khatib got the highest number of votes out of all candidates in the elections, totaling 17,078. The elections were hailed by participants as being peaceful and democratic. "The elections were organized and civilized with a large turnout from the club's general assembly, Khaled Mortagi told Daily News Egypt. Ahead of the elections, independent candidates lead by former club board member Safir Nour filed a complaint to the State Council against appointing the same counselor who supervised the last four club elections. "Appointing the same counselor casts doubt on the credibility of the elections, he told the press before the elections. During his tenure as chairman, Hamdy has seen the club win various local and continental titles, which propped his cachet during the elections. "There is no full success without negativities, we keep learning from our mistakes and that's the real experience, Moratgi said. "We look forward to building seven squash courts at Ahly's Gezirah branch and opening the Sixth of October branch in the next four years, board member Hisham Saeed told Daily News Egypt.
