Egyptian media is reporting that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has lost control of the physician’s syndicate for the first time in almost thirty years. According to a report in Al-Masry Al-Youm:
Muslim Brotherhood’s nearly three decade-long monopoly of the syndicate, with candidates opposing the Islamist group doing especially well in the syndicate’s provincial branches. Election results showed that the Doctors for Egypt list, representing the Brotherhood, lost control of the national syndicate’s board. The Brotherhood-backed list took 18 of the board’s 24 seats. Doctors went to the polls on Friday to elect the syndicate’s, general and provincial syndicates seats in 27 govern orates. Khairy Abdel Dayem, a Brotherhood candidate, defeated 22 candidates to become head of the syndicate. He will replace Hamdy al-Sayed, who held the position since 1978. Abdel Dayem is not a member of the Islamist group. Nonetheless, representatives of the Independence list, which opposed the Brotherhood, say they are happy with the results, especially their performance in the governorate branches, where they took control of the boards in 14 of Egypt’s 27 govern orates. “This not a small victory, since the newly formed Independence list has won a landslide victory in half Egypt’s governorate,” said Mona Mina, a leading member of the Independence list who was elected to the syndicate’s board on Friday. The Independence list is made up of members of the reformist groups Doctors Without Rights (DWR) and the Tahrir Square Doctors group, as well as independent figures. Mohamed Hisham, a judge and the head of the judicial committee supervising the Syndicate election, said in a press conference Sunday that the polls were fair despite some irregularities. This is the syndicate’s first free election in 19 years after the judicial custody froze all electoral action within the syndicate. The incumbent syndicate board had served since activity within the syndicate was frozen. “Before these elections, the Brotherhood used to have full monopoly over the syndicate. They used it as a platform for religious propaganda. The results, especially in the provincial syndicate seats, have proven that they’ve suffered a great lost in this election,” said Iman Yehia, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Suez University.
Read the rest here.
In contrast, an earlier post reported that the Egyptian Brotherhood recently won a landslide in elections for the Pharmacists Syndicate. It is well known that the Brotherhood has long controlled many of the important professional organizations in Egypt.