The Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate ordered adjourning its midterm elections to April 2 instead of March 19 and holding them in the open air in Cairo amid coronavirus concerns.
The adjournment comes after authorities refused its request to hold the elections in a large tent outside its headquarters in Abdel Khalek Tharwat street, downtown Cairo.
The Syndicate thinks that holding elections inside its premises in accordance with the law poses a major threat to the safety and health of the voters due to the pandemic.
This adjournment also comes after a preventive medicine report from the Health Ministry affirmed that precautionary measures against coronavirus cannot be followed in the elections inside the syndicate’s headquarters.
The midterm elections of the Syndicate is held every two years for a new head and half of the board members (six out of 12). There are 8,861 eligible voting members.
Currently, six candidates are competing on the syndicate head post, currently held by Diaa Rashwan, while 55 candidates are competing for board seats.
Rashwan, 60, served as head of the Press Syndicate from 2013 to 2015 and was again reelected in 2019.
He has been a strong opponent to the government of late Muslim Brotherhood leader and President Mohamed Morsi and a strong supporter to the 2013 Revolution that ousted the president.
He also took part in the 50-member constitution committee former in 2013 to draft Egypt’s current constitution.
Egypt Today
