Farid Zahran re-elected as President of Egyptian Social Democratic Party

CAIRO – 7 May 2022:  Politician Farid Zahran won the presidency of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party after obtaining 529 votes, while politicians Hanna Gerges and Naglaa Kotb received 229 votes, and 18 votes, respectively.

It is the second time for Zahran to head the left liberal party as he won the 2016 elections.

A committee of the National Council for Human Rights has monitored the elections and opened the registration for the election at 11:00 a.m. on Friday.

The eligible voters in the election are 989 people. Only a total of 786 voters casted their ballots including 776 valid votes and 19 invalid ballots, with a turnout of votes recorded 79.5 percent.

After winning the election, Zahran welcomed, in a speech, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's call for a national dialogue with all factions and political forces.

“We stood against the terrorism law, the extension of the emergency law and the blocking of websites, and we issued dozens of statements to release [former parliamentarian] Ziad Al-Alimi and others. We stood with everything that contributes to achieving Egypt’s national security. We adhere to a Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital,” Zahran said.

Over the past nine months, the party held its primary elections, successively, in 19 geographical secretariats nationwide.

The Egyptian Social Democratic Party was established in 2011 following the January 25 Revolution, adopting principles of social and economic democracy, which means redistributing wealth in favor of work and workers in terms of the market’s economy. It won 15 seats in the parliament in 2012, but the number of the seats decreased to five in 2015 parliamentary elections.

Politician and physician Mohamed Abou El-Ghar was the first chairman of the party since 2012 until he resigned in September 2016 following a mass resignation by party members.