The Arab Journalists Union elections concluded on Thursday with Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Al-Bahbahani elected as its new head. The head of Kuwait's Journalists' association, Al-Bahbahani replaces Ibrahim Nafe'. Nafe' is the former head of state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper. The Union elected 15 new members to its general secretariat. The new members include two Egyptian journalists: Hatem Zakareya and Karem Mahmoud. Zakareya was elected as the secretary general of the union and Mahmoud the financial secretary. Both are Press Syndicate board members. The new union members are reportedly scheduled to meet with President Mohamed Morsy in the Presidential Palace on Thursday. In an unprecedented incident, Press Syndicate head Mamdouh Al-Wali failed to be elected. Al-Wali was reportedly advised against running for the Union's general secretariat elections, in light of the criticism he has recently received for his unofficial affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. Press Syndicate board members Hesham Youness and Gamal Abdel Reheem were also not elected. Abdel Reheem told state-owned Al-Ahram he withdrew from the voting procedures after his proposition to put the names of the 20 candidates in an alphabetical order. Abdel Reheem stated the names were arranged neither alphabetically nor according to seniority; he thus feared that the top 15 names would be elected by the members without consideration. Founded in 1964, the Arab Journalists Union is a popular association tasked with highlighting the issues of concern to Arab journalists.
