Several independent presidential hopefuls chose their electoral symbols on Tuesday in preparation for the May election.
Ahmed Shafiq chose a ladder, while Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh chose a horse, Amr Moussa chose the sun and Mohamed Selim al-Awa chose an umbrella.
The idea of using electoral symbols was implemented after the 1952 revolution to enable voters who can't read to choose candidates.
The Presidential Elections Commission, presided over by Farouk Sultan, issued the rules for allocating candidates' electoral symbols on Monday.
Parties' candidates were also given their electoral symbols. The commission decided the parties should keep the same symbols they had used during the parliamentary elections.
The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party kept the scale symbol, while the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, represented by Abul Ezz al-Hariry, received the sea goggles symbol.
The Democratic Peace Party received the car symbol, while the Democratic Generation got the video camera. The Tagammu Party, represented by Hesham al-Bastawisi, will use the watch symbol, while the Asala Party will use the ax symbol.
Meanwhile, Hatem Bagato, the commission's secretary general, said they meet Tuesday to mull the enforcement of the political isolation law on presidential hopefuls ahead of issuing the final list of candidates on Thursday.
Military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi has approved a law that would exclude certain candidates who served under Hosni Mubarak from running in the race. It would apply to Ahmed Shafiq, who served as the last prime minister under Mubarak.
Bagato refused to confirm Shafiq's exclusion but said the commission will apply the law to all candidates, and those applicable to the law will be excluded.
He also added that the commission's judges have nothing to do with constitutionality of the law's articles.
"We have nothing to do with the provisions of the law. We only apply it," he said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
