CAIRO - Judges supervising the Egyptian Writers' Union elections announced that junior union members had managed to win almost half of the seats on the 30-member board, reflecting the growing power of youth inside the union. Mohamed Salmawi, the current head of the union, had managed to end competition over the top spot in the independent union in his own interest with 383 votes out of a total of 601 correct votes. The judges said five women had managed to win seats on the board ��" another indication that women will not stand passively by and watch in post-revolution Egypt. The elections, the first since the revolution, started on Friday in a feverish atmosphere marked by rivalry among different generations of writers, poets, novelists and journalists, amidst a heated war of revolutionary slogans. Hundreds of writers converged on el-Salam Theatre in central Cairo to take part in the elections, which stressed the need for change and independence for the union. "We need a new climate, corresponding to the spirit of change created by the January 25 revolution," said Medhat Moneer, a poet and a member of the union, who travelled all the way from the Suez Canal city of Ismailia to take part in the polls. “This union should lead Egypt in the future in protecting its culture and supporting development and freedom of thought,” he told The Gazette. The members of the board submitted their resignation immediately after the revolution, having been accused of not doing enough to support the popular uprising that ousted Mubarak and his regime on February 11. This is the first time polls have been held for all 30 seats of the board. Elections were held every two years in the past and candidates could only run for half of the seats. Sherif el-Gayar, a union member, said the results showed that the union will change, sooner or later.
