Hatem Begato, secretary of the Presidential Elections Commission, has said that 280 candidates have already applied to run in the presidential election, including three Coptic Christians and two candidates with special needs. “The only famous figures who came today were Mortada Mansour and Bothaina Kamel,” Begato said. Most candidates are unknown personalities. Saeed Abdel Halim, a candidate with special needs from Alexandria, said he is running in the election to defend the rights of 12 million people with special needs who were deprived of their rights under the former regime. “I will collect one pound from each of them to finance my campaign,” Abdel Halim said. Al-Nasser Salah Eddin, another candidate, said he is running in order to apply God's law, while Mohamed Sayed, who came wearing slippers, said he would announce his electoral program to the Egyptian people within days. Another candidate named Adel Younis claimed he is the son of King Farouk. “The Tanta Family Court will prove my kinship to the king on 12 April,” he said. Younis, who came holding the old royal Egyptian flag, vowed to reinstate the monarchy and make that flag the official flag of the country. “King Farouk's descendants are the legitimate rulers because the 1952 coup was carried out by a fraction of the army and not the whole military,” he said. Ahmed Magdy, deputy director of the campaign supporting Ahmed Shafiq for president, criticized the campaigns of Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh and Hazem Abu Ismail, who started putting up posters although the committee has prohibited campaigning at this stage. “They should be penalized,” he said.
