Meanwhile, the committee overseeing the papal elections postponed interviews with candidates pending the end of a deadline to register voters.

Archbishop Abram of al-Fayoum, a member of the nominations committee, said the challenges against candidates will be received by unregistered voters, adding in statements to al-Wafd that the Holy Synod committee will meet from June 26 to July 4 to run church affairs.

Counselor Munsif Sulaymān, a member of the 18-member committee running the election to bring the 118th pope on the Saint Mark chair in Egypt in succession of Pope Shenouda III, who died in March, said a date could be set during a committee meeting with acting patriarch Bishop Pachomius next week. [‘Abd al-Wahāb Sha’bān, al-Wafd, June 22, p.3] Read text in Arabic