(Cairo, November 13, 2010) Appeal phase:
The battle of appeal began in all governorates after the lists of male and female candidates were issued. Courts began to receive requests for appeal and making decisions about them. The appeals reached to the highest in the last day of receiving appeal requests. The final statistics of the supreme committee of elections found that number candidates reached 397, of which independent candidates reached249 while political parties’ candidates reached 148, and 72 candidates in the general constituencies. The total number reached to 469 candidates. 5725 female candidates will participate in the parliamentary elections on the seats allocated for women; among them are 4156 independents and 1223 from various political parties.
The following are the most prominent appeals that have been presented by the female candidates and have been monitored by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights during the appeals period:
Ismalia:
- The female candidate on labor seat of El Wafd party in Ismalia governorate presented an appeal to the committee against the female candidate of NDP on the same seat. The appeal includes documents about NDP’s female candidate’s acquisition of 40 feddans in different places in Ismalia, in addition to her acquisition of a gas station with an official contract of 2 million pounds, which contradicts the category of “labor and farmers”. El Wafd female candidate requested in her appeal to change the category of NDP female candidate to “Professional”.
Kafr el Sheikh
- Female candidates in Kafr el Sheikh made a surprising decision to changetheir nomination categories to “professional”. An independent candidate on the “Labor” seat appealed inserting her name in lists of the female candidates on “Professional” seats, though her original category was labor. Thus, she presented her documents to the committee and requested that her category has to be changed again to “Labor” category.
- Female candidate of the Egyptian Arab Socialist Party on the quota seat appealed before the court along with three other candidates against female candidate of NDP on “labor” seat. They requested changing her category to “Professional” as she is higher educated.
Qena:
- The total appeals reached 38 presented by men and women candidates to the chief of the primary court in Qena. Six of those appeals presented by female candidates for the quota seats were to change the categories and fulfill the required documents. The female candidate in the independent “Professional” seat on women’s quota appealed the documents and requested changing the category of NDP female candidate to “Labor”.
Bani Swaif:
- The number of appeals submitted by candidates of Bani Swaif was 25.. In addition, the NDP female candidate and Al Wafd female candidate denounced each other because they changed their category.
