CAIRO - Egypt's political parties and groups, and independent hopefuls running in the November 28 legislative elections start Sunday their official campaigns nationwide as the final lists of candidates are set to be announced by the Higher Election Commission. "The election campaigns can begin as of Sunday. However, Monday is the final day for candidates to quit the race," the commission said in a statement. It added that the final lists of candidates would be announced after all appeals, court rulings and other legal measures were vetted. Though the Higher Electoral Commission had previously banned all kinds of campaigning before November 14, the majority of the contenders started their campaigning two weeks ago, with candidates from the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), including Cabinet ministers, raising banners and holding rallies. "All media are requested to be balanced. Also an equal chance should be given to all political parties and independent candidates to promote their programmes," a committee entitled with monitoring the media performance said in a report Saturday. It added that the stage to register candidates was marred by some violations from media outlets, which hosted some hopefuls who promoted their electoral programmes. The campaigns are the second and most decisive stage in the legislative elections, in which around 5,720 candidates vie for 508 seats of the legislature. These campaigns will be in place until November 27. El-Sayyed el-Badawi, the head of Al-Wafd opposition party, said Saturday Al-Wafd would hold six big rallies to promote candidates. "The first rally will be held (today) in Daqhalia (in the Delta). Five other rallies will follow," el-Badawi said in a press meeting Saturday. The NDP, meanwhile, started its rallies with Cabinet ministers running in the race holding rallies and raising banners in their constituencies. "The party allocates its website to publicise its electoral manifesto and its candidates," an NDP official said. Minister of Information Anas el-Fiqi said the Egyptian State-run media would allocate 60 minutes for each political party on Egyptian TV to tout its manifesto while the independent candidates would be given five minutes each. "We will stick to our authenticity during the vote with all parties and hopefuls," el-Fiqi said. President Hosni Mubarak reaffirmed on Wednesday that Egypt would hold "free and transparent" parliamentary elections under the follow-up of local civil society organisations.
