Over 5,400 candidates to contest Egypt vote

Over 5,400 candidates to contest Egypt vote
 

Egypt’s electoral commission published overnight the final list of the more than 5,400 candidates who will compete in the November elections, local media reported.

The state-owned Al-Akhbar newspaper said a total of 5,414 candidates would vie for the 444 parliamentary seats up for grabs in the country’s 222 constituencies.

The opposition fielded 4,970 hopefuls, including party candidates and independents.

President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) is the only party to have picked out the full 444 candidates but it could face a stiffer challenge than in the past, both from the opposition and from NDP renegades who have decided to stand as independents.

The NDP currently controls 402 out of the 454 seats in parliament, where 10 MPs are appointed directly by the president.

Unlike in previous elections, very few of the 5,488 hopefuls whose applications the electoral commission spent a week reviewing were rejected.

The three-phase election will kick off just after the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan with polling in Cairo and some other central provinces on November 9. The vote will end a month later