The Presidential Elections Commission has received inquiries about candidacy requirements from 1,274 citizens as of Monday, the commission said on its website Tuesday, five days ahead of the final date for applications.
Applicant registration began on 10 March and is scheduled to end on 8 April.
Egypt’s presidential election is scheduled for 23–24 May. Nonpartisan candidates must secure the endorsements of 30 members of Parliament or 30,000 citizens from at least 15 governorates to run. Applicants from political parties with at least one member in Parliament are exempt from these requirements.
The commission said in a statement Tuesday that Mahmoud Hossam Eddin Galal, a former state security officer and head of the Bedaya Party — which comprises former members of Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party — was the latest candidate to submit his documents and 40,000 notarized signatures of endorsement, 10,000 higher than the required amount.
So far nine candidates have submitted applications, five from political parties and four with the citizen endorsements.
Prominent hopefuls Amr Moussa, Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh and Hazem Salah Abu Ismail are among the nine candidates who have already submitted their applications. The Muslim Brotherhood’s recently announced candidate, Khairat al-Shater, has not yet turned in an application.
According to commission’s website, Egyptian expatriates only have one day left to register their names at Egyptian embassies abroad so they can vote in the election.
The website also said nearly 492,000 expatriates have registered so far. This figure is higher than the number of those who registered for parliamentary elections that began late last year, which was only 355,569.
