ELECTION FEVER: As Al-Ahram Weekly went to press votes were being counted to decide who will be the next chairman of the Press Syndicate. Polls for the chair, and the Press Syndicate's 12 council seats, closed at 5pm yesterday, by which time Salah Montasser, prominent Al-Ahram columnist, and Galal Aref, who writes in Akhbar Al-Youm, had emerged as the front-runners. Of the remaining candidates for the chairman's post Osama Karam of Al-Ahrar, and Ibrahim Dessouqi of the Middle East News Agency (MENA), were apparently out of the race.

With 68 contestants vying for the 12 council seats, results were far less predictable, with candidates ranging from supporters of the ruling National Democratic Party, liberals, leftists and Islamists.

Of the Syndicate's 4,085 syndicate members the greatest majority -- 1,207 -- work for Al-Ahram, followed by 525 Al-Akhbar employees and 526 from Al-Gomhouriya.