The Shura Council's electoral commission said Sunday campaigning for the mid-term vote set for June 1 starts Monday, announcing that 509 hopefuls are running. "After excluding 67 candidates, around 509 hopefuls can start their electoral campaigns as of today," said Judge Intessar Nassim, the head of the Shura Council mid-term Electoral Commission. He added that the civil society organisations, as well as authorised Arab and foreign representatives would monitor the process during both the voting and vote tallying stages. "Seven hundred judges will be chosen to head the general electoral councils, and 25,000 State employees will serve as chairpersons and members of the electoral subcommittees," Nassim said. Meanwhile, Minister of Information Anas el-Fiqi ordered all State-owned media to be "fair, transparent and unbiased" in covering the electoral process and the candidates' campaigns. "It is important to provide equal opportunities for all candidates, voters and parties," el-Fiqi told a press conference on Sunday. The Shura Council reviews laws before handing them to the Lower House of the Parliament (the People's Assembly) for a final vote. The candidates are vying for 88 seats in the mid-term elections. President Hosni Mubarak has the right to appoint 88 members, 44 each term, of the council and the remainder are elected, in two blocks of 88 serving overlapping terms. The banned Muslim Brotherhood, whose candidates run as independents, is seeking 14 seats in the council after its members were blocked from running in the 2008 Shura election.
