Egyptian Journalists' Elections. A "service battle" with a taste of politics and professionalism

Tomorrow, Friday, Egyptian journalists will go to the polls in the 2023 midterm elections to elect a new president from among 11 candidates, and 6 new syndicate council members from among 40 candidates, according to the latest disclosure of candidates published by the syndicate's website, and while calm and service tone prevailed over the elections in the first days after the opening of the nomination door, politics partially returned, and considerations that it is an opinion syndicate election, to occupy a position in the electoral scene, and the most prominent conflict crystallized in the last hours in the competition for The position of the president between candidate Khaled Miri, who is closer to the slogans of relying on opening channels with the executive authorities, and candidate Khaled Al-Balshi, who is more focused on the file of union independence and the promotion of freedoms, while it seemed remarkable that the role of "regionalism" in the election of council members compared to previous elections was remarkable, and the possibility of predictions was complicated, according to the testimonies of participating journalists.

The head of the Journalists Syndicate, Diaa Rashwan, said that the committee supervising the elections issued a large number of decisions, most notably that each candidate on the president's seat has the right to have 23 original delegates and 10 reserve delegates to attend the counting and voting, adding that he received the approval of the head of the Administrative Prosecution Authority for the judges of the Administrative Prosecution Authority to fully supervise the administration of the elections.

The services file overshadowed the two files of the "information technology allowance", which Miri announced to increase by 600 pounds through negotiations with the government, while El-Balshy submitted a request for a 40% increase to Egyptian Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, and the "health services", which there are notes about in various press circles despite the allocation of 21 million pounds from the last syndicate budget to cover them.

The candidate Khaled Miri said in a meeting with journalists hosted by the headquarters of the newspaper "Al-Mashhad" and attended by "Emirates Today", that he lived the problems of journalism during 12 years as a member of the syndicate council, and knows that there are difficult and accumulated problems, and has a vision to work to solve most of these problems, such as wages, freedoms and health services, and that there is no priority for one file at the expense of another, and that a major part of success is to open channels to deal with the government.

Candidate Khaled Elbalshy said in a subsequent meeting at the same headquarters that the independence of the profession and the file of freedoms is an important priority for him, and a key element in the independence of the profession is the development of the union's resources. Elbalshy added that the voices of journalists and the General Assembly are the ones that negotiate due rights, estimated wages, real services, and freedoms that are not taken away by decision or variables.

At the level of elections for members of the Council, unified lists and blocs were absent, regionalization declined from activity and most of the programs looked similar, and some focused on providing a quality service such as housing journalists or providing a parallel health service program.

Journalists told "Emirates Today" that for these reasons, it can be said that there is difficulty in predicting the results of the elections compared to the previous elections, in light of the complexity of the press situation among various institutions, and the entanglements of candidate maps.