CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated “Doctors for Egypt” list won 11 of 12 seats on the Doctors' Syndicate board of directors losing only one seat to its rival “Independence” list in the first election in 19 years. At a press conference Sunday, marred by accusations of vote-rigging, Hamdy El-Sayed, the former Syndicate Chief announced Khairy Abdel Daim as his successor. The Syndicate elections Friday saw political and religious polarization amid fierce competition between the Brotherhood candidates and the “Independence" list comprising advocates of doctors' rights. Leading figure with the Doctors Without Rights movement Mona Mina won the only non-MB seat alongside a male-dominated board including Ahmed Abdel Fattah Nada, Khaled Emara, Mohamed Said Othman, Gamal Abdel Salam, Abdel Fattah Rezk, Islam Nassar, Ahmed Lotfy Abdel Mohsen, Yehia Mekkia, Abdel Rahman Gamal and Abdallah Al-Keryony and the only other woman, Noha El-Sharnouby. Fierce verbal clashes clouded the announcement of the results, with candidates belonging to the Independence list already lodging appeals. "We have appealed the poll results in six governorates because the ballots were collected in the absence of representatives from our list," said Khaled Samir. Samir said that even though the judicial committee monitoring the elections had promised to delay the announcement of the results for two days, the supreme supervisory committee pressured them to announce it too soon. "The preliminary results indicated that we would win at least six of the12 seats but we only won one seat for Mona Mina," said Samir, who was also contesting the board elections. Ahmed Raouf, who ran for the top position as syndicate chief, alleged rampant forgery in some polling stations in Cairo and Giza where he says pre-marked ballots were distributed and sold outside the stations. El-Sayed, on his part, said that the elections saw honest competition under the supervision of 42 judges. According to Justice Mohamed Hesham, head of the general committee monitoring the elections, the announcement of the results was delayed for one hour to look into all complaints and appeals. "The results are 100 percent correct," he said. Some 1027 candidates vied for a spot on the Syndicate Board, while 23 ran for the top position. El-Sayed said that there was a low voter turn-out, with an estimated participation of merely 15 percent of total eligible voters. Doctors who have been organizing partial strikes and protests hope that the board will improve their financial and working conditions, pressure cabinet to raise the health budget, improve hospital facilities and establish a hospital for doctors.
