Early on Saturday, after long hours of voting, the result of the Judges Club elections was declared at dawn, with a surprise triumph for Judge Mohamed Abdel Mohsen’s list.
Nine candidates ran for club presidency of the nationwide association for judges, among a total of 93 candidates to form a new board of directors.
The voting process started at 1pm Friday, and the result was announced almost 12 hours later.
The club decided to hold elections in June after a court verdict ruled the club’s internal regulation illegal, requiring new elections.
Two front-runner lists associated with the former president of the club and former minister of justice Ahmed Al-Zind, one of whom had his son as member, lost to a surprise list headed by the deputy head of the court of cassation Judge Mohamed Abdel Mohsen.
Al-Zind was dismissed from his government position in March following social media backlash calling for his immediate resignation that accused him of ‘religious contempt’ after he made an inflammatory remark about the prophet.
The former top judge, who has a wide base of supporters among other judges, was a prominent pro-government figure and a fierce opponent of the Muslim Brotherhood government before it fell in July 2013.
