The voting deadline for the Papal elections may be extended, Bishop Paula, the official spokesperson of the Coptic Orthodox Church has announced. “If there are still electors who did not cast their vote, we will extend the period,” Bishop Paula said. The elections are taking place in the prominent Abbassiya Cathedral. It began at 9 am Monday and was expected to end at 5 pm. There are about a total of 2,406 electors who were chosen from the Coptic community to have the right to vote in the papal elections. The voters will choose three out of five candidates. The finalists will then run in the final phase of the electoral process: the 'alter lottery' on 4 November, in which a blindfolded child will randomly select the name of the church's next pope. “In the final phase we will write the names of the three finalists on three large papers. Then we will lay them out for all to see and wrap them up and insert them in metal rings. Each will be sealed with red wax and put in a big glass box” explained Bishop Paula. At that point 76-year old Bishop Pachomios, who has been acting as interim pope will lead a small blindfolded child to the box and ask him to pick one of the papers. The name on the chosen paper will become the new pope. “We will make a list of all the children who are in the Cathedral that day,” Bishohp Pachomios said. “I personally prefer a child who lives abroad or a disabled or blind child.”
