Foreign media referendum coverage biased, irregular: Media Council

CAIRO – 20 April 2019: Ahmed Salim, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Media, said that the Chamber of Operations of the Council has not received any complaints by journalists and media officials who are covering the referendum on the constitutional amendments.

In his remarks, Salim said that the chamber monitors all that is issued by the local and foreign media and that it prepares a report every two hours that is sent to the National Elections Commission and the Information Center of the Council of Ministers.

He also added that the Chamber monitored the local media's commitment to professionalism and accuracy in its coverage of the referendum, pointing out that it detected irregularities and bias in covering foreign media sites.

The National Elections Committee has previously stated that the number of general committees to vote for Egyptians inside is 368 committees, which include 10,878 polling stations and 13,919 sub-committees, stressing that it is important for those eligible to vote to do so, noting that there will be a LE 500 fine for those who do not vote.

Lashin Ibrahim, Head of the National Electoral Commission and Vice-President of the Court of Cassation, called on voters whose names are registered in the voters' database to participate in the constitutional referendum. The elections will take place outside Egypt on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 19-21, And on Monday, 20, 21 and 22 April.

Of those eligible to vote, 61,344,503 voters, 50.37% are men and 49.63% are women.

The referendum process is subject to full judicial supervision, with 19,339 judges (basic and reserve), of whom 15,324 are actual judges at the ballot box.