Egyptian presidential hopefuls top 500 so far

Egyptian Minister of Justice Adel Abdel Hamid Cairo – Akram Ali Egypt’s High Presidential Elections Commission Secretary General (HPEC) Hatem Bagato stated that  to date, 564 Egyptians have taken the first step to run for president. They obtained applications when the application period began on Saturday.  Candidates have until April 8 to submit completed candidacy applications.
The election is scheduled to take place on May 23 and 24.  Independent applicants must secure the endorsement of 30 members of Parliament or 30,000 people in at least 15 of Egypt\'s 18 governorates in order to run.
Applicants representing political parties with at least one member in Parliament are exempt from these requirements.
Bagato said in an interview with the state owned Al-Ahram newspaper that two candidates have submitted completed applications: Ahmed Mohamed Awad Ali of the Egypt National Party and Abul Ezz al-Hariry of the Socialist People\'s Alliance Party.
The Office of the President in Egypt has powers far exceeding any other branch of government, with Mubarak, for example, running the country with unquestioned authority for 29 years until his ouster by a popular uprising 13 months ago.
Islamists, who dominate both chambers of Parliament after sweeping electoral victories, seek to curtail the powers of the president\'s office and give more authority to the legislature.
Presidential hopeful Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh leads the race to collect signatures for candidacy, followed by Amr Moussa and Hamdeen Sabbahi.
Former members of the disbanded National Democratic Party have collected signatures in Sharqiya governorate for candidate Ahmed Shafiq, while residents of Monufiya collected signatures for Mohamed el Baradei, although he withdrew from the race.
Bagato also told the Egyptian daily that Egyptian expatriates can endorse presidential candidates.
“We have printed 100,000 ballots to send to embassies around the world in order to enable Egyptian expatriates to vote,” Bagato said.
Since the overthrow of Egypt’s monarchy in the early 1950s, presidents have always been members of the military and have secured the office through heavily rigged elections in which only their name appeared on the ballot.
The only exception to this was in 2005, when Mubarak allowed other candidates to run against him.  He won the vote comfortably and later jailed the politician who finished a distant second on drummed-up forgery charges.
The presidential election will be the last step in Egypt\'s turbulent transition to civilian rule. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, led by Mubarak\'s defence minister of 20 years, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, has promised to hand over power shortly after the new president is announced on June 21.
Regarding the campaigning, Begato said that according to the HPEC Chairman Farouk Sultan statement on March 7, campaigning for the presidential elections will officially begin April 30 or after a final list of candidates is announced on April 26. Campaigning will continue until the end of May 20, or 48 hours before elections day on May 23. Anyone breaching these dates will be prosecuted.
Bagato indicated that the funding will be overseen by the Central Auditing Agency. He indicated that each candidate will be obliged to give HPEC first-hand information about how many cash donations they received and how they are spent. He or she will also have to provide HPEC with a statement about how much funding he or she obtained within 15 days after the announcement of the results of the election.
Bagato also stated that candidates are strictly forbidden from obtaining foreign funding for campaign spending. It is also illegal for presidential candidates to campaign in sites of religious worship. Their campaigns must not violate the private lives of other candidates or stir up issues that might spark sectarian strife.