Secretary General of the Presidential Elections Commission Hatem Bagato said Tuesday that ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his son, Gamal, have the right to vote in the presidential election.
Bagato, speaking to Al-Masry Al-Youm, said that the commission has not yet received a request from them to take part in the election. He confirmed that the commission is still studying requests from detainees to vote.
Sources at the Interior Ministry’s Prison Department said that there are between 7,000 and 10,000 inmates detained in 42 prisons pending investigations that have the right to cast their votes in the presidential election on Wednesday and Thursday, provided that they apply for it.
The sources added that former President Mubarak, who is detained in a medical center, and 44 former regime officials, held in five different prisons, have all not applied to vote. The law allows detainees to vote as long as they have not been convicted.
The sources said it is impossible for thousands of detainees to vote because voting requires polling stations, civil workers and judges to supervise the elections, particularly as prisoners number over 3,000 in different prisons in Cairo and 1,000 in Tora Prison.
The sources said that the law gives detainees against whom no final judgment has been issued the right to vote by submitting a request to the prison administration, who will write a report about his or her legal situation and alert the Presidential Elections Commission.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
