Captain Khaled Elbalshy: I will be a representative of all journalists. It will be a union to negotiate
Independence Movement Wins Surprise in Egyptian Journalists' Elections
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In an unexpected surprise in the Egyptian trade union and political street, the judicial committee supervising the elections of Egyptian journalists announced that the candidate of the Independence Movement, Khaled El-Balshy, won the seat of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate in the 2023 midterm elections, where he obtained 2450 votes, while the next one in the candidacy list, and affiliated with the government current, Khaled Merry, got 2211, and he also won the seats of the Council competing for it in the renewal, Gamal Abdel Rahim, Hisham Younis, Mohamed El-Garhy, Mahmoud Kamel, Mohamed El-Sayed, and Abdel Raouf Khalifa, which constitutes a remarkable development in the expected performance of the syndicate in the coming period, according to experts and followers.
The General Assembly of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate had witnessed in its last meeting before the vote yesterday (Friday) headed by former President Diaa Rashwan heated discussions about the performance of the Syndicate Council in its previous session, and the budget of the Syndicate, almost led to the adjournment of the meeting and the postponement of the elections, but it ended to a compromise solution at the last moments, which is to accept the refusal of the General Assembly to approve the budget of the Syndicate presented by the previous Council and issue a decision to refer it to the next General Assembly for discussion, as issued by the Assembly Several decisions, most notably, renewing the Egyptian press group's refusal to normalize with Israel and holding accountable any journalist who violates the decision, addressing the Egyptian Public Prosecutor again to release journalists imprisoned pending opinion cases with a guarantee from the syndicate and disbursing a monthly subsidy of 2000 pounds to their families, disbursing the information technology allowance to each journalist registered in the syndicate without the requirement to obtain a letter from his newspaper, increasing pension budgets, and confirming the minimum wage in the tripartite contract signed by the journalist and his institution. and the syndicate.
The announcement of the result witnessed a state of confusion as it was postponed for half an hour, after reviews ranged between the victory of Al-Balshi and the trend towards a replay between Al-Balshi and Miri, ending with the issuance of the Judicial Committee of the final statement.
The Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Administrative Prosecution and Chairman of the General Judicial Committee supervising the elections, Counselor Ahmed Morsi, said in the statement, "The total attendance amounted to 5 thousand and 62 votes, and the number of valid votes amounted to 4 thousand and 888 votes, while the number of invalid votes reached 174 votes, and that the candidate for the position of Captain Khaled Al-Balshy got 2450 votes, and the candidate Khaled Miri got 2211 votes, and Sayed Al-Iskandarani got 79 votes, and each of the candidates got: Ayman Abdelaziz received 32 votes, Sayed Abdel Moaty received 10 votes, Talaat Hashem received 4 votes, Abdo Maghrabi received 38 votes, Mohsen Hashem received 33 votes, Mohamed Maghrabi received 4 votes, Naima Rashid received 10 votes, and Yasser Ismail received 17 votes.
The Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Administrative Prosecution and Chairman of the General Judicial Committee supervising the elections of the Journalists Syndicate: "We were pleased with our presence to secure the conduct of the electoral process for the mid-term renewal of the Syndicate, the press is the fourth authority, and its members are the owners of the pen, and when the Administrative Prosecution was asked to supervise the elections, we had nothing but response, we were loaded with a strong will to secure the conduct of the electoral process, and to stand on one space with everyone.
Morsi continued: "In fact, and the intensity of the interest of journalists, we found a heavy presence by members of the General Assembly to cast their votes, before ratifying the General Assembly meeting and announcing the start of voting, which resulted in grumbling by a large number of journalists, which we were able to contain, and we waited according to the rules set."
He added: "We are keen to respond to all questions and inquiries that come to us, and it is to the credit of the Bar Council, in agreement with the colleagues who set the rules, that they did not leave an opportunity for any question or inquiry without being answered."
He explained that their goal of presence and supervision is to respect the rules set for the conduct of the electoral process, until we reach safety, with a result that does not carry any doubt or doubt.
"Winning is a democratic spectacle and sends a message of hope to the General Assembly that we as journalists can do a lot, and as I said during the election campaign, yes together we can return the syndicate to its owners, and make it a syndicate for all journalists and not for one team and one, a union for negotiation, and I pledge to be a representative of all journalists," said the head of the Journalists Syndicate, Khaled Elbalshy, after the announcement of the result.
Journalist Afaf Ahmed said that "the competition in the elections was honorable, and the voting process was real and reflects the awareness of the General Assembly of Journalists."
Journalist Mohamed Suleiman said, "The victory of Al-Balshy and the defeat of Miri, the two clearest contenders in the elections, occurred because of the existence of a general climate willing to change due to accumulated problems for the press group and for press institutions looking for new thought and performance, and the negative media atmosphere that preceded the elections witnessed bias from some platforms and lack of commitment to neutrality towards the candidates, which played an important role in resolving the critical positions of the bloc, and there is a change in the composition of membership, all of which are factors if It didn't end with a win for Elbalshy, it would at least have ended with a draw."
It is worth mentioning that the winning head of the Journalists Syndicate, Khaled Elbalshy, who is affiliated with the leftist current intellectually and the independence movement unionist, holds a bachelor's degree in media from Cairo University in the mid-nineties, and joined the work in Rose Al-Youssef magazine in 1998, then the constitution in 2005-2006, and headed the editor-in-chief of Al-Badil newspaper from 2007 to 2012, then headed the editor-in-chief of a number of newspapers such as "Al-Bedaya", and "Al-Wadi News" and signed "writer" and held the position of agent of the Journalists Syndicate and Chairman of the Freedoms Committee in He also received the Nelson Mandela and Michel Guards Award for Freedoms in 2017, and is currently the editor-in-chief of the platform "Darb" website, which was launched by the Popular Alliance Party.
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