The most prominent names of applicants were Bishop Bīshūy, Secretary of the Holy Synod, Bishop of Damietta and Kafr al-Sheikh and head of the Saint Dimyana Monastery, Bishop Yu’annis, Secretary of Pope Shenouda, Bishop Raphael, General Bishop responsible for central Cairo churches, Bishop Baphnotius of Samallūt, Bishop Butrus, Second Secretary of Pope Shenouda and General Bishop, and acting Patriarch Bishop Pachomius of al-Beheira.

Bishop Armiyā, the third Secretary of Pope Shenouda, refused to run for the position although he was in the forefront of competitors. “I do not deserve this chair and I can’t see myself in the place of my father Pope Shenouda, who trusted me over many secrets of the church for 17 years,” he told many of the members of the Holy Synod or Coptic archons who appealed to him to run in the papal elections. [Ashraf Sādiq, al-Ahrām, April 28, p. 3] Read original text in Arabic