Arab League to observe Egypt's presidential elections 2018

CAIRO - 20 January 2018: The Arab League announced on Saturday that it is ready to carry out observations on the Egyptian presidential elections scheduled to take place on March 26 to 28.

In a statement, the Arab League said that this participation comes within the framework of its concern to follow up the process of the presidential elections, which comes as an important step in enhancing the march of democracy in Egypt, pointing out that the League has already participated in following up the presidential elections of 2014.

The Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, assigned Ambassador Haifa Abu Ghazaleh to head the mission which will be distributed in the Egyptian governorates during the voting days in accordance with the deployment plan that will be prepared during the coming period.

The members of the mission will be chosen based on a number of criteria, such as having prior experience, and having a balance of representation between women and men. Observers must also be holders of a non-Egyptian citizenship in order to ensure full impartiality for all members of the mission in their work.

The statement pointed out that the League has so far sent more than 71 electoral monitoring missions, specified in monitoring presidential and parliamentary elections and referenda held in many Arab countries and a number of foreign countries. Some 1,800 observers have participated in the monitoring missions over the previous years.

By the end of presidential elections, the mission will issue a comprehensive report containing all its detailed observations and recommendations to improve and develop future electoral processes.

At the end of the statement, the Arab League expressed its sincere wishes for the success of the National Elections Commission and all other Egyptian bodies concerned with the organization of this important electoral event and to conduct such elections in an atmosphere of security and stability.

Egypt’s National Election Authority (NEA) will start receiving application forms from potential candidates for the 2018 presidential elections on Saturday.

All presidential candidates must meet the requirements set by the NEA. The list includes being an Egyptian national born to Egyptian parents, no younger than 40 years old and not suffering from any physical or mental illnesses, among other conditions. A candidate’s wife must also be an Egyptian and born to Egyptian parents.

A candidate must submit a birth certificate, a criminal record document, a military service certificate, a financial disclosure, a medical report, and a receipt of paying LE 20,000 ($1,128.80) to the Authority.

The deadline for submitting the applications was set on January 29, according to the authority’s timeline.

The NEA also approved requests from certain NGOs to monitor the elections. The organizations include the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights, Parents for Transparency and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR).

Only four persons announced their decision to stand as presidential candidates. Veteran lawyer and human rights activist Khaled Ali, who ran for the presidency in 2012, revealed in a press statement last week that he will be running for president.

On Saturday, Parliamentarian Mortada Mansour announced that he is running for president as well, announcing that his first decision to take as president would be to block Facebook.

Ex-military Chief of Staff Sami Anan’s candidacy for president was revealed on Friday. However, his son denied knowing anything about his father’s decision. Hence, it is not clear at this point in time whether General Sami Anan will run in the presidential elections or not.

Belly dancer Sama el-Masry casually announced Sunday her intentions to run for president on her official Instagram account. In 2015, she was disqualified as a candidate for parliamentary elections over her “immoral” video clips, in which she is recorded dancing.

To be accepted as a candidate in the presidency elections, one must be recommended by at least 20 elected parliamentarians or be endorsed by at least 25,000 citizens who have the right to vote, in at least 15 governorates, with a minimum of 1,000 supporters from each governorate.

The final list of the candidates will be announced on February 24; the deadline for any candidate to retract their candidacy is March 1. The primary results of the first round of the election will be announced on March 29, when decisions on appeals submitted by candidates, if any, will be made.

If no candidate obtains the majority of votes, a three-day run-off round will commence in Egypt on April 24, and on April 19 abroad. The name of the winning candidate is set to be announced on May 1.