The Presidential Elections Commission has already received complaints that the campaign regulations are being infringed, reports Gamal Essam El-Din Following last Thursday's announcement of the final list of candidates the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC) yesterday embarked on the second phase of its mandate to supervise Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential elections. PEC spokesman Osama Atawiya said the commission would now concentrate on ensuring there is no infringement of the rules governing the conduct of campaigns. "Foremost among these," said Atawiya, "is that the candidates' campaigns should not infringe on the private lives of rivals and that they refrain from raising slogans that could cause sectarian strife or incite religious hatred." Candidates must also refrain from resorting to violence or the offering of bribes, and from using public facilities, including transport, for campaign purposes. Nor can they use public funds to finance their campaigns. Anyone infringing the regulations, Atawiya said, could face a one- year jail sentence and a fine ranging from between LE10,000 to LE100,000. On Sunday candidates began opening their campaign accounts with one of Egypt's big four public-sector banks, the National Bank of Egypt, Misr Bank, Banque du Caire or Bank of Alexandria, as stipulated in last month's presidential elections law. Each candidate is eligible for LE500,000 in government campaign funding. President Hosni Mubarak, official candidate of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), and Noaman Gomaa, the Wafd Party's candidate, have both said their campaigns -- which are expected to reach the ceiling of LE10 million placed on funding -- will be financed by their respective parties. Other candidates are expected to take the government funding. Ayman Nour, Ghad Party's candidate, says he has already filed a complaint with the PEC alleging that Mubarak's presidential campaign has violated many of the commission's rules. Though the presidential elections law stipulates that any donations to campaign funds be lodged in the campaign account many wealthy businessmen have already, Nour says, contributed to Mubarak's campaign. Nour has also accused the security forces and state-owned media of bias against him. Gomaa, and Osama Shaltout of the Takaful Party, have also said they intend to file complaints with the commission. Gomaa claims that the state media remains determined to promote Mubarak's presidential campaign and, together with Shaltout, has voiced concern that holding the elections in a single day will compromise the efficacy of judicial supervision and leave the vote open to fraud. PEC Chairman Mamdouh Marie, responding to the complaints, saying the commission remained committed to ensuring the complete judicial supervision of the poll. The logistical dilemma that results from 329 main, and 54,000 auxiliary polling stations, to be overseen by just 13,000 judges, would be solved, Marie said, by merging auxiliary stations so that there are only 10,000. "In every auxiliary polling station there will now be between three to five voting boxes," he said. Marie also revealed that the supervision of judges will extend to cover the area surrounding the voting stations to ensure no one is hindered as they go to cast their vote. While the votes will be counted in the polling stations the result, said Marie, could take more than 24 hours to finalise. Whether or not there would be any international monitoring of the poll was, Marie said, a matter for the government to decide. President Mubarak's political adviser, Osama El-Baz, has already announced that the government will not allow international monitors to observe the presidential elections, while the Judges' Club, in a meeting on 13 May, deferred any decision on their own supervisory role to 2 September. The Club's chairman, Zakaria Abdel-Aziz, requested a general meeting with Marie to coordinate the issue of monitoring. Marie, however, opted for separate meetings with judges on a governorate-by-governorate basis. Mohamed Moussa, chairman of the People's Assembly Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee, told Al-Ahram Weekly he remains confident there will be no judicial boycott of the elections. "After their demands for transparency elections were met, the judges no longer have any reason to boycott," he said, urging the Judges' Club to begin coordinating with the commission at the earliest possible date.
