By Mary Nady
In preparation for Egypt’s 2024 Presidential Elections, the National Elections Authority (NEA) has approved 24 embassies, 67 diplomats, and 220 international observers. This is in addition to 68 local organizations and 22,340 local observers who will all be monitoring the elections. At a press conference on Wednesday, executive director Ahmed Bendari announced that the NEA has also granted 4,218 media observers the authority to cover the upcoming elections.
These media observers represent a diverse range of agencies, newspapers, channels, and media outlets.
Bendari also shared that the presidential elections will be taking place domestically from 10-12 December, with 11,631 subcommittees set up across 9,376 polling stations nationwide.
The NEA has taken measures to ensure that voting is accessible for all citizens. Bendari explained that they have allocated subcommittees for seniors and people with disabilities, as well as designed posters to aid voters with hearing disabilities. They have also designated braille paper ballots for visually impaired voters. The NEA also facilitated voting abroad from 1-3 December at diplomatic missions across 121 countries.
The candidates in the race for presidency include incumbent President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, whose electoral symbol is a star as he runs for a third term in office. Farid Zahran, the leftist opposition Social Democratic Party candidate, has the sun as his electoral symbol. Other contenders are Abdel-Sanad Yamama, representing the Wafd party with the palm tree as his electoral symbol, and Hazem Omar, the candidate from the People’s Republican Party with the ladder as his symbol. The NEA is scheduled to announce the final results on 18 December, unless a run-off election is necessary.
