Egypt's election authority tackles crowding, technical errors at presidential candidate endorsement notary offices

CAIRO – 1 October 2023: Egypt’s National Election Authority (NEA) said it has interfered “immediately” to tackle some complaints regarding crowding and technical errors at some of the notary offices issuing presidential candidate endorsement forms.

In a statement on Sunday, the NEA said a “small number” of notary offices issuing endorsement forms have experienced electronic errors for a “brief” period of time.

Furthermore, the NEA received inquiries and complaints regarding crowding at notary offices, which are fully designated for issuing presidential election endorsement forms.

Fixing technical errors

To tackle the issues, the NEA ordered providing notary offices that see a high turnout by citizens with more trained employees and tablets to raise the pace of issuing the forms and completely eliminate crowdedness in these places.

The NEA said it also supervised directly the efforts of fixing technical errors in a small number of notary offices and making sure such errors do not reoccur.

The election authority ordered extending the working hours in these offices in order to issue all forms requested by citizens to endorse their favored potential candidate.

Eliminating crowdedness

The NEA directed notary offices to continue providing services to citizens during the official working hours.

However, in case of large gatherings of citizens willing to issue endorsements, the offices will be working beyond official hours to serve all citizens present since before the official closing hours, the statement said.

The NEA said it takes into consideration its decision and the related laws aiming to remove any obstacles facing citizens.

The authority said it is also keen to investigate all complaints that it receives with regard to any violations or malfunctions in order for it to interfere to tackle them in accordance with the law.

Presidential elections

Thousands of citizens gathered at the notary offices over the past week to issue endorsement forms for figures willing to run for president in the upcoming elections, scheduled to be held in December.

According to the law, any citizen willing to run for president must first obtain endorsement from at least 25,000 citizens in 15 or more governorates in order for their candidacy to be accepted.

Instead, a citizen can run for elections in case he managed to secure endorsement from 20 or more members of the House of Representatives.

Political party leaders and presidential hopefuls Farid Zahran, Hazem Omar and Abdel Sanad Yamama have all obtained the required endorsements from the parliament.

Incumbent President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has not yet announced his plans to run in elections but tens of political parties and unions have urged him to run for another six-year term.

Egyptians will cast their votes in the 2024 Presidential Elections on 10-12 December 2023 locally, while eligible voters living abroad will vote on 1-3 December.