The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) has claimed an overwhelming success for its candidates in the first round of the Teachers Syndicate's elections. The elections, which were held across the country on Wednesday, were to determine the members of the syndicate's national and provincial boards.
This is the second time the Brotherhood has taken part in elections for the board members of a professional syndicate since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February.
Ahmed al-Halawani, the Brotherhood's campaign director for the Wednesday elections, said the group has won the chairmanship in 134 syndicate provincial offices, out of 315 nationwide, according to the MB's most recent statisics from Thursday.
"The group's candidates won 1113 board memberships at the syndicate's provincial offices, and the number of Brotherhood winners is expected to soar as the count continues," Halawani said on the website of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Teachers' Syndicate, Egypt's largest professional syndicate with over 1.2 million members, has 315 provincial officers around the country, with each containing one chairman and 15 board members, with a total of 5040 members across Egypt. According to Halawani, the group is vying for 2000 of the seats at provincial offices.
Observers believe the recent success of the Muslim Brotherhood in some syndicate elections reflects the prosperity enjoyed by Islamist groups since the toppling of the former president.
In June, the group had a landslide victory at the Pharmacists' Syndicate, winning 22 seats out of 25. Brotherhood member Mohamed Abdel Gawad occupied the chairman's seat.
