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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 23 - 29 November 2000 Issue No.509 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 23 - 29 November 2000 Issue No.509
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Not even close
By Alaa Shahine
The US elections might be too close to call but on the other side of the Atlantic, in Egypt's Ahli club, it wasn't even close.
Mutual congratulations between Hamdi and Selim after winning in Ahli's elections
photo: Medhat Abdel Meguid
In what club officials described as the most exciting elections in its history -- a debatable statement since those who were supposed to win did so, and by a mile -- Saleh Selim was re-elected to a third successive term -- his sixth altogether -- garnering 7,427 votes out of 11,256 eligible votes. What is undisputed is that Selim's margin of victory was the largest in Egyptian sports elections.
Selim, one of the country's all-time football greats, beat out nearest rival Mohamed Genaidi who picked up 2,848 votes. Limping into third place came Mukhtar Hussein with just 800 votes. Ahmed El-Demeiri and Mohamed Thabit were left way behind, ending up with a paltry 39 and 20 votes respectively.
Hassan Hamdi, who also made a name for himself on the field, was re-elected vice president, raking in 7,867 votes, more than double what opponent Walid El-Fil received at 3,312.
Ibrahim El-Moalim found no difficulty in securing the treasury post; he has been acting treasurer for the past two years. El-Moalim tallied 8,473 votes, more than 6,000 ballots ahead of Mahmoud Rushdi.
The fight for the board proved equally ho-hum. Former football idol Mahmoud El-Khatib was asked to do little more than show up and sign autographs before pulling in 9,146 votes to win a seat comfortably. Joining him were Mahmoud Taher, Mohamed Abdel-Wahab, Hisham Said and Taher Abu Zeid. Abu Zeid's victory, in particular, created a slight stir because of his history of consistently opposing board policies. Abu Zeid edged out former table tennis star Alaa Mushrif.
Two board seats went to under-30 candidates El-Amri Farouk and Ahmed El-Kafrawi.
The motto of Ahli elections this year was "renewing the art of campaigning," and there were certainly some innovative techniques used. Genaidi invited club members -- all 59,000 -- to his chain of factories to buy whatever they wanted at a 50 per cent discount. Candidate Safir Nour tried to sweeten up the pot, attempting to use the recent sugar shortage to his advantage after dumping lower-priced bags of sugar on the club. So, did Loser Nour and his supporters get one lump or two?
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