The Presidential Elections Commission said on Monday that it would take legal action against candidates exceeding the LE10 million spending limit it has set for campaigns.
State-run Al-Ahram newspaper website quoted commission chair Farouk Sultan as saying he would not rely on information provided by the candidates regarding what they have spent on campaigns.
“A specialized committee will monitor that,” Sultan said, adding that no candidate had so far violated the rule, and that the commission had not yet received reports of candidates receiving contributions over the limit.
In the event the maximum is exceeded, the commission will report the offending candidate directly to the attorney general.
Sultan also said his committee has not received notifications in this regard from the specialized committee.
“The specialized committee may be preparing procedures that it has not finished yet,” he said. “Once it is finished, the committee will brief the commission.”
He added that the commission has not yet received any reports about the bank accounts of the candidates as to whether they received contributions for their campaigns.
Safwat al-Alem, head of the specialized committee, told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Sunday that there are strong indications that candidates have exceeded the LE10 million campaign spending limit. The names of the violators will be announced after the deadline for campaigning passes, Alem added.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
