Shuja elected President in maiden KPC elections

TNN Bureau. Updated: 7/16/2019 11:37:37 AM

SRINAGAR: In the maiden election of Kashmir Press Club (KPC), Shuja-ul-Haq was elected as President and Moazam Mohammad as Vice Presiden, even as candidates backed by Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) emerge victorious on 10 of 11 posts, barring that of President.

Haq won by a single vote from Haroon Rasheed who was backed by KEG, while Zulfikar Majid—third candidate in the fray remained far off.

“A total of 231 votes were polled for the post of president. Out of these, Shuja scored 92 votes, Haroon took 91 votes and Zulfikar Majeed scored 46 votes while two votes were rejected,” Chief Electoral Officer Manzoor Unjum said.

For the post of Vice President three contestants were in fray including Mohammad Mouzam, Wasim Khalid and Tajamul Islam.

“Of the 211 votes that polled two were rejected, Mouzam took 130 votes and Tajamul scored 75 while Wasim Khalid got 24 votes,” he said.

There were three candidates in fray for the position of General Secretary – Ishfaq Tantray, Hakeem Irfan and Reyaz Malik. “A total of 231 votes were polled of which six were rejected. Of the polled votes, 102 were scored by Tantray, 95 by Reyaz Malik and 28 were Hakeem Irfan,” he added.

For the Treasures position, there were only two contestants in fray Farooq Javed Khan and Arshad Rasool. “Khan scored 178 votes while his rival got only 44 as nine were rejected during counting,” he said.

Also elected were seven executive members including Habib Naqash, Arshid Shah, Shafat Kira, Altaf Baba, Nisar Ahmad, Gowhar Geelani and Auqib Javaid.

Out of 254 journalists from print and electronic media affiliated with KPC who were eligible to vote in the first-ever elections for the club established two years back, 231 used their right to vote.
Newly elected President of KPC, Shuja ul Haq, said that he felt happy with the way the elections were held.

Talking about the future challenges, he said “My priorities would be that of increasing the infrastructure, we will give a good shape to the press club. Also, we will try to affiliate with the rest of the press clubs in India so that our members can use their facilities as well.”

He added: “My other priority would be to organize training workshops for the members so that techniques and work are done in the journalism outside are known and we can utilize that work.”

All the contesting candidates held the week-long campaigning using social media and banners as a tool to reach out to their fellow colleagues. The campaign also saw making and breaking of alliances between various journalistic associations.



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