The Higher Electoral Commission (HEC) has announced regulations on electoral spending and campaigning. Candidates are required to create a bank account for the purpose of collecting donations for the electoral campaign. The account should be in one of the national banks, including Bank Misr, Al-Ahly Bank or the Post Office. Candidates are not allowed to fund the campaign except from the specified account. Candidates should keep a record of the sources of funding and their campaign expenses. The record should be handed to the governorate's election unit the day following the end of the campaigning period. The regulations also prohibit campaigning which infringes upon the personal privacy of citizens or candidates or which threatens national unity. It also prohibits the use of public facilities, religious venues, universities, schools and other educational facilities. Monitoring units will be formed to record any campaigning violations. If violations are proven, the head of the HEC will issue a request to the head of the high administrative court to remove the candidate from the electoral list. This is the second set ofcampaign regulationsissued this week. The HEC also announced earlier this week that registration for national and international civil society organisations to monitor upcoming parliamentary elections is between 12 and 21 January. Parliamentary elections will take place in two stages in March and April. The first stage of the vote will take place on 21-22 March for expats and on 22-23 for residents in Egypt, while the second stage will take place on 25-26 April for expats and on 26-27 April for Egypt residents. An estimated 54 million Egyptians are registered as eligible voters in the coming poll. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/120302.aspx
