7 candidates compete over Press Syndicate leadership, 73 candidates run for council membership seats Current head Yehia Qallash running for syndicate leadership, former president Diaa Rashwan out of competition
The Press Syndicate announced Wednesday the final lists of candidates for its upcoming March elections for the positions of head and six members of the council. A total of seven candidates are running for the position of head, including two women, while 73 candidates are competing for seats in the council, including 12 women. This comes as current head of the syndicate, Yehia Qallash, is running for the position again. Former head of the syndicate Diaa Rashwan, who had publicly expressed his wish to run for the same position, withdrew on Tuesday, stating "too many disputes inside the syndicate" as the reason. Among other candidates for the head of the syndicate are Talaat Hashem, El-Sayed El-Eskandarany, Abdel Mohsen Salama, Islam Kamal, Gihane El-Shaarawy, and Naeema Rashed. As for members running for the council, they include current secretary-general Gamal Abdel Reheem; head of the freedoms committee Khaled El-Balshy; and council members Hanan Fikry and Osama Dawoud. Qallash, Abdel Reheem, and El-Balshy are still facing trial after appealing against their two-year prison sentence on charges of harbouring two wanted journalists inside the syndicate, against the infamous police raid on the syndicate back in May. While both journalists were eventually released from custody, one of them, Amr Badr, is running for the elections as a council member. Moreover, Hassan El-Kabbani, a journalist detained since January 2015 on accusations of belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, is running for a position in the syndicate's council.
