Presidential candidate Hamdīn Sabbāhī announced that he stopped all activities for his campaign in mourning over Pope Shenouda, offering “sincerest condolences” to Coptic Orthodox Christians in Egypt and the world at large over their “national and spiritual loss”.

Presidential hopeful ‘Amr Mūsá, in a statement on Sunday (March 18), expressed “deep grief” over the death of Pope Shenouda and said Egypt has lost a “great citizen, revered clergyman and a distinguished pioneer of joint Egyptian action”.

‘Abd al-Mun’im Abū al-Futūh, another presidential candidate, offered condolences to Bishop Mūsá of Youth over the phone. Other presidential candidates, Mamdūh Qutb and Husām Khayr Allāh expressed sadness over the pope’s death and said Egypt, with the departure of Pope Shenouda, has lost one of the few influential figures in the nation.

The coordinating commission for presidential candidate Ahmad Shafīq’s election campaign has announced a three-day mourning “over the honorable soul of Pope Shenouda,” urging its members in all governorates to offer condolences. [Ahmad ‘Adlī and Rānyā Rabī’, al-Shurūq al-Jadīd, March 19, p. 5] Read text in Arabic