National Election Authority monitors donations to candidates

CAIRO – 6 February 2018: Presidential candidates should open an account in local currency in banks specified by the National Election Authority (NEA) to deposit the donations he receives and his own funds he allocates to the campaign, according to constitutional Jurist of the Legislative Reform Committee Salah Fawzi.

In this regard, Fawzi added that according to the presidential election law, the candidate shall inform NEA with the amounts deposited in his accounts and their sources, and he shall notify the authority of all expenses paid from his accounts.

He remarked that he shall not spend on the electoral campaign from any source outside the campaign bank account. The authority will have the responsibility to distribute what remains of the funds in the account among its contributors in proportion to their contributions.

He also said that the law prohibits receiving any cash, donations or financial support from any juridical Egyptian or foreign person, foreign country or entity, international organization or any entity whose capital is contributed by foreign person.

Article 25 states that presidential election law should submit the authority, within 15 days from the date of announcement of the election’s results, a statement indicating the total amount of funds received along with their sources and amounts spent on the electoral campaign.

Every candidate should appoint his delegate to do all duties and procedure requirements necessary to implement the provisions of the law including all the financial affairs by means of a power of attorney certified by registration office of the real estate, and provide NEA with the official copy of the power of attorney.

Furthermore, Article 26 stipulates that Central Auditing Organization shall audit presidential election’s accounts of the candidates to submit NEA a report on the outcomes of its findings to NEA.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and head of Ghad Party Moussa Moustafa Moussa have applied to run in the presidential election, the National Election Authority said on Wednesday.

The news was published in the official newspaper, which pointed out that Sisi received recommendations of 549 MPs and support letters from 161,707 people.

Voting in the 2018 presidential election in Egypt will commence on March 26, as announced by the NEA on January 8. Sixty million eligible voters will cast their ballots in the election between March 26 and 28 in Egypt, while expatriates will vote between March 16 and 18.