The Daily Message for the International-Local Mission to Observe the Parliamentary Elections

The International-Local Mission to Observe the Egyptian Parliamentary Elections composing the Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD); the International Institute for Peace, Justice and Human Rights (IIPJHR) and their local partner Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights (MAAT), starts to issue daily messages monitoring the general features of the electoral process that has been launched since the beginning of September 2015.
On September 5th, 2015, the Mission noticed the limited numbers of candidates in several electoral districts, generally, only 147 candidates submitted their candidacy papers during the 5th day of candidate registration period, the total candidates number till the evening of September 5th reached 3924 candidate. The most significant of what has been observed in different governorates is, and till the evening of the 5th of September 2015, the following candidates submitted their candidacy applications: 254 candidates submitted their candidacy applications in Sharkia; 193 in Qalioubia; 115 in Beni Suef; 83 in Damietta; 154 in Kafr ElSheikh; and 23 in North Sinai while the most important surprise was the fact that nobody submitted their candidacy application for the fourth constituency located at Middle Sinai.
As for the electoral lists, the Mission observed that some lists refrained from submitting their candidacy applications due to the High Elections Committee's condition requiring an updated criminal status for the candidates, which made the legal agents representing the lists postpone their application's submission till the completion of the required criminal status documents.
Yesterday, the demonstrations of the opposing powers to the electoral process disappeared in all the governorates except for Kafr ElSheikh and Giza, Kafr ElSheikh witnessed an un-authorized protest for a pro Muslim Brotherhood group in Baltim denouncing the current regime and announcing the lack of acknowledgment of the coming election's results claiming that any future parliament is illegal. In Giza, dozens of the pro MB in Beni Magoul protested against the current regime and announced their boycott for the electoral process.
The Mission noticed the continuing efforts for the Egyptian government represented in the concerned ministries with the electoral process, where chief of staff of the armed forces visited the potential paratroopers units to participate in the elections security in case their intervention was needed, he stressed on the full readiness for the immediate and rapid intervention in case of any emergency; in the same context, the Minister of Interior conducted a meeting with his assistants from departments managers to discuss the security plan for the electoral process; and the Ministry of Education announced the development of a plan to hand over the schools to be used as polling stations to the security apparatuses in advance to complete the security measures without harming the educational process except for limited cases where voting is planned to take place days after the new school year.
As for the political powers activity, the Mission observed a noticeable movement on the ground, with the spread of some illegal campaigns, where members of the Salafist group close to AlNoor Party in Alexandria were observed preparing a names list for Hepatitis C patients to provide them with Sovaldi; in Damietta, several food commodities and meats fairs were organized for citizens in the presence of potential candidates for AlNoor Party; and AlMasreen AlAhrar Party was observed during the distribution of paper campaigning in the streets of some districts.