Egypt sees 385 presidential candidates

Eighty-one Egyptian citizens on Monday registered themselves as candidates for Egypt's presidential elections, raising the total to 385 candidates. The unprecedented rush has been observed after merely three days of opening registrations, although there is still a relatively weak effort to register the supporting documents for the candidates. Meanwhile, several citizens have complained about the complexity of the registration process and the lack of cooperation from the official documentation offices' employees. The general secretary of the high committee, Hatem Begato, said that the high committee issued new regulations to simplify the document registration process. The committee eliminated the necessity to mention the identity number of the candidate and allowed citizens to register their supporting documents at any documentation office regardless of their place of residence. Begato added that the high committe had asked justice minister Chancellor Adel Abd Al-Hamid to inform the committee about any shortage in the documents copies, so the committee could supply the offices with them. The high committee also issued a statement, revealing that it had sent messages to the ministers of education and local development to prepare a list of areas to be used for voting. It said the locations must ensure they have all facilities for voters and moderators. A meeting held yesterday between the high committee members and representatives of the foreign ministry also discussed the procedures for registering the supporting documents of Egyptians living abroad. The meeting preceded another one held by the high committee with representatives of the three mobile phone service providers in Egypt to discuss the role of the companies in enabling citizens to know their voting locations with the minimum cost available for this service.