Second round, last chance

Journalists go to the polls again today to vote for the chairman of their syndicate

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Journalists gather during Sunday's elections

Elections for the chair of the Press Syndicate enter their second round today with none of the 11 candidates having secured more than 50 per cent of votes necessary to secure victory in the first round. While the real contest was always going to be between no more than three or four of the 11, none of the candidates managed to inspire sufficient excitement among journalists to secure victory in the first round, allowing for a second round run-off between the current chairman of the syndicate, Galal Aref, and Ibrahim Hegazi, editor of Al-Ahram Al-Riyadi.

Out of 3,045 valid votes, 1,193 went to Aref, 940 to Hegazi, 602 to Mustafa Bakri, editor of the independent Al-Osbou' and 223 to Osama El-Ghazali Harb, editor of Al-Ahram's Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya. The remaining 87 votes were split between the other seven candidates.

Aref, who has narrowly emerged as the front runner did so, says veteran journalist Salama Ahmed Salama, because "none of the other candidates offered more than he has offered in the last two years."

The candidates had variously promised to provide a variety of discounts to enhance journalists' purchasing power, pressure for the abolition of imprisonment sentences for publication offences and ease restrictions on the publishing of new papers. And with their supporters engaged in a round of statements and counter-statements, it was Bakri who seemed to be scoring the most points.

On the eve of the elections, though, a statement was distributed reminding voters of an incident that occurred during one of President Hosni Mubarak's regular meetings with editors-on-chief. Bakri had brought to the president's attention the involvement of a number of ministers in corruption cases. He was asked to sit down by the president, who hinted that he was perhaps not the best person to bring up allegations of corruption. Before the vote a statement was widely circulated alleging that Bakri had received money from Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule in return for his support.

The allegations may well have taken the wind out of the campaign Bakri has been busy orchestrating on the pages of Al-Osbou' against corruption in the national press, with former Al-Ahram Editor-in-Chief Ibrahim Nafie one of Bakri's favoured targets.

Indeed, Al-Osbou' was issued a day earlier this week -- Saturday instead of Sunday, the day of the elections -- and featured photographs of Nafie's "palaces".

Osama El-Ghazali Harb's chances were not helped by his support for normalisation with Israel, a position with which a majority of journalists disagree. Harb is also a member of the National Democratic Party's powerful Policies Secretariat which, quipped many voters, provides him with quite enough influence already without it being extended to the syndicate. Harb did not run a vigourous campaign, and many thought he was relying a little too heavily on his reputation as a "respectable politician".

After Sunday's result Hegazi and Aref ratcheted up their campaigns. Hegazi's team was busy sending e-mails and text messages outlining deals he had struck with various ministries to provide low-priced summer houses, apartments, build a club in Alexandria and suchlike. He had already offered large discounts on the purchase of laptops, and promised more to come.

While such enticements may attract some voters, others find them a distinct turn-off, feeling that they are little more than an attempt to buy votes. Hegazi, though, has based his campaign on improving the services offered by the syndicate, insisting "it is time to separate the syndicate from partisan matters and stop it from being used as a platform for opposition parties and political movements."

Hegazi's campaign was lent weight by a number of senior Al-Ahram personnel, with many predicting that the final vote would be between rival organisations -- Al-Ahram and Al-Akhbar, where Aref works -- as much as candidates.

Aref, for his part, played up his opposition credentials, and many observers believe he will receive the lion's share of Harb and Bakri's votes. In an interview on Dream TV, Harb appeared to endorse Aref when he said that if he had not been running himself Aref would get his vote. Salama, too, is tipping Aref who will win, he says, because he has "shown himself to be reasonable and has succeeded in reassuring those who feared he would lead the syndicate into confrontations with the government," Salama said. "Journalists want stability. Maybe others can offer more services but that is not the most important issue at the moment."

Former Press Syndicate chairman Makram Mohamed Ahmed agrees. Journalists, he says, are refusing false heroes and bribes, and they will do so again on Thursday.