Registration to run for the Shura Council elections, set for June 1, ended Sunday as President Hosni Mubarak highlighted the necessity for the vote to be “free and transparent”. "President Mubarak stressed the need for transparency in the Shura Council elections, and instructed that there should be a full commitment to the Constitution and law," Safwat el-Sherif, the Secretary General of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), told reporters after a meeting with Mubarak. He added that Mubarak had also asked the ruling party's contenders to abide by the regulations set by the Supreme Electoral Commission in their campaigning campaigns. El-Sherif said that the ruling party's candidates included three. El-Sherif, who also heads the Shura Council said that the NDP had fielded 88 candidates for the 67 constituencies, where the mid-term elections would be held. "We have reviewed the list of candidates with President Mubarak, which was endorsed by the party's electoral colleges. We also tackled the electoral programme of the party," el-Sherif said. Mubarak is the chairman of the ruling party. The Shura Council is the Upper House of the Egyptian bicameral Parliament. Its name roughly translates into English as "the Consultative Council". The Lower House of Parliament is the People's Assembly. In the June 1 elections, 88 members will be elected as Mubarak has the power to appoint 44 others. The shura Council was created in 1980 through a constitutional amendment. The Council is composed of 264 members of which 174 members are directly elected and the 88 are appointed by the President of the Republic for six-year terms. Membership is rotating, with one half of the council renewed every three years. The banned Muslim Brotherhood is fielding 14 candidates for 20 per cent of the seats up for grabs in the mid-term elections. The candidates affiliated to the group, banned since 1954, run as independent due to the fact that the group is not recognised according to Egyptian Constitution, which bans political parties on religious grounds. However, the group complained of excessive redtape from the electoral committee and tightened security measures that blocked its candidates from submitting their applications. "Some candidates including MPs in the People's Assembly were barred either by arrest or redtape from approaching the electoral commission," said Saad el-Katatni, the head of the Brotherhood's parliamentary bloc. Meanwhile, Judge Intisar Nasim, the chairperson of the Supreme Electoral Commission, warned candidates for the vote against breaking the law in their campaigns. He reminded them that the law bans the use of religious logos or slogans, and warned against using foreign funds to finance election campaigns or giving money to voters to influence their ballot choices. "Any candidate who violates these rules runs the risk of having his/her candidacy removed," Nasim said.
