The committee which supervised the ballot announced Friday evening that Zahran won 529 votes, ahead of his main rival Hanna Greece who got 229 votes. Naglaa Qotb, a third candidate, received 18 votes.

The committee announced that 785 voters, out of the party's general congress of 989 members, participated in the ballot, with a turnout of 79.5 percent. "While the number of valid votes stood at 776, invalid votes reached nine only," said the committee.

The internal ballot was held at the headquarters of the General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions (GFETU) which is located in downtown Cairo's El-Galaa street. It was supervised by a committee affiliated with the National Council for Human Rights.

Zahran was named chairman of the Egyptian Social Democratic party for the first time in April 2016 after its founder Mohamed Abul-Ghar resigned two months earlier.

Zahran, 65, is the son of Saad Zahran, a leading founder of the Egyptian leftist student movement in the 1970s. Zahran is also head of the Al-Mahrousa Centre for Publishing and Press Services.

Zahran, alongside leaders of many political parties, was appointed by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi as member of the Egyptian Senate in 2021.

The Egyptian Social Democratic Party was founded in April 2011, just three months after the anti-Mubarak revolution.

Following his re-election, Zahran described the party's internal elections as democratic and fair. "The elections introduced a very democratic image about the party," said Zahran.

Right now, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party has seven seats in Egypt's House of Representatives, and three seats in the Senate.