Shura Council elections, set to begin Tuesday, will test the strength of official political parties, the Muslim Brotherhood opposition group and independent candidates, who will battle for 74 seats in 55 different constituencies all over the country. The Shura Council is the upper, consultative chamber of Egypt's parliament. The Supreme Electoral Committee announced there were 446 candidates running in the elections, of whom 115 are from 13 political parties and 331 are independents. Elections are set to kick off despite 12 challenges submitted to the Administrative Court against certain candidates alleged to be unqualified. Meanwhile, civil society organizations say the electoral committee did not authorize them to take part in the supervision of elections. Committee head Entissar Selim, however, said he had coordinated with the National Council for Human Rights to provide these organizations with the needed permission. Ahmed Ezz, secretary-general of the ruling National Democratic Party's organizational affairs committee, for his part, said the party had chosen its candidates in accordance with popularity surveys conducted on more than 19,000 party members. He added that he expected run-off elections over 20 seats. Two Muslim Brotherhood candidates running in Fayoum and Gharbiya said they had not received permission from authorities to run in elections and had both therefore submitted interpellations to the prime minister in this regard. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
