By Mohammad Baali
Albawaba.com – Cairo
The editor in chief and managing director of the Cairo-based Al Ahram daily on Tuesday announced that he had won his sixth term as the head of the Egyptian Press Association.
Ibrahim Nafe’ won his second consecutive term with 2,197 votes, beating seven other journalists and thrashing leading competitor Magdi Hussein, the editor in chief of the shut-down Al Shaab newspaper, who obtained only 458 votes. The other six candidates split the remaining 80 votes among themselves.
Calm prevailed during the elections on Tuesday in Cairo, which witnessed heavy voting. The association’s general assembly reached a quorum at 3:00 pm, just two hours before the elections were over.
Some 2,224 association members, ostensibly representing more than 50 percent of Egypt’s entire complement of journalists, participated in the elections. Candidates turned up in front of the association building in the early morning hours to leaflet, except for Nafe’, who utilized Al Ahram staff members for the job.
The leaflets varied from propaganda for the candidates to blasting Nafe’ for the association’s allegedly deteriorating condition. One of such leaflet was signed by a group of leftist reporters calling themselves Tomorrow’s Journalists.
The elections were run at the new association headquarters, whose erection Nafe’ claims as one of his proudest achievements – Albawaba.com
