Zamalek speak

By Inas Mazhar

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MAMDOUH Abbas has become the 18th president of Zamalek. Inas Mazhar reports on the biggest poll in the club's history.

More than 26,000 club members voted on Friday May 29 for a new Zamalek president and board, proving they are no longer "the silent majority" as described by sports critic Essam Abdel-Moneim.

In past elections, many club members boycotted the poll for fear of riots that had previously broken out. They would instead follow the results from their homes in silence and accept their fate.

And because the elections involved big names and a historic club and was the first elections to take place in three years, it received huge media coverage as well as tough security measures.

The last elected president was Mortada Mansour in 2005. Three months later, the board was dissolved and three presidents were appointed in succession: Abbas, Mursi Attalah, Abbas again and Mohamed Amer. Every time a date was set for elections, a court order postponed it because of pending lawsuits filed by some of the candidates.

On the day he won, Abbas was the happiest person around. He was absent all day and only entered the club when it was officially announced he had won. In the last hour, he was leading his closest rival Mansour by 2,000 votes. Former president Kamal Darwish fell behind in third place. Abbas was hoisted aloft by club members as he entered the club in jubilation and triumph.

"Winning with such a majority is so sweet because you are being elected and not appointed. You know that the club members selected you and this is something great. They want me because they believe I am capable of leading them in the coming years. I believe they have faith in me and my pervious experience is proof to them," Abbas, who will head the club until 2013, told reporters after his triumph.

When he was appointed twice before as president of the club by the chairman of the National Sports Council Hassan Sakr, Abbas was described by the media as Sakr's man, a rich businessman imposed by Sakr, the highest- ranking sports official in the country, on Zamalek's General Assembly. The voting on Sunday seems to have proved this wrong.

What made Abbas even happier was the success of all his list of candidates -- Raouf Gasser, Hazem Emam, Ahmed Galal Ibrahim, Sabri Serag, Hani El-Attal and Ibrahim Youssef.

"I think it is healthy that the whole team wins," said a club member. "When you select the whole list then you are sure they will work together because they share the same values, plans and ideas. When you have board members who always disagree, it will definitely affect the board's decisions. In the past because the board members disagreed with each other, there were several split decisions which divided the club led to its collapse in the past three years.

"Now, we expect the board to work together for the sake of the club. They are all on good terms and I'm glad the club members realised that it would be in their favour to select a list in its entirety."

On Tuesday 2 June Abbas headed Zamalek's first official board meeting since the vote. A vice president was scheduled to be named.