The Presidential Elections Commission sent a letter to the Foreign Ministry Thursday inquiring if six presidential candidates, their parents or wives have dual nationalities. Egyptian diplomatic delegations abroad are to inquire about Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh, Amr Moussa, Hossam Khairallah, Abul Ezz al-Hariry, Mohamed Fawzy, candidate of Democratic Generation Party, and Ahmed Awad al-Saeedy, the candidate of Egypt National Party, according to an Egyptian diplomatic source. Laws governing presidential elections, which are scheduled for 23 and 24 May, stipulate that the candidate, his or her parents and spouse must be Egyptian nationals without another nationality. The head of the elections commission said in a phone interview Tuesday with Al-Hayat 2 satellite channel that the committee would apply the law to anyone who violates candidacy requirements or procedures. The mother of at least one presidential candidate holds dual nationality, Al-Masry Al-Youm cited a senior security source as saying. Salafi presidential hopeful Hazem Abu Ismail has denied rumors that his mother is American. He claimed during conferences in Mansoura in the Daqahlia Governorate Thursday that the US is spending millions of dollars to spread chaos in Egypt and that when it failed to tarnish his reputation it raised concerns over Christian Egyptians. “I have received endorsements from tens of thousands of Christians all over Egypt,” he said. “I have confirmed information about attempts to rig the presidential elections and the indications are clear. First, when Egyptians in Saudi Arabia tried to register their names for voting, they were surprised that all their data was registered in advance. The second indication is that the Ministry of Interior has issued IDs for soldiers to vote in the presidential elections [for the candidate the government wants],” Ismail alleged.
