Al-Azhar requested on Friday that Ghobreyal Abdel-Malik, the head of the judicial body the State Council, select the judges to supervise the elections for the new head of Al-Azhar University, state-owned news agency MENA reported.

Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayyeb said in a Friday statement that the electoral process should be entrusted to a committee of judges from the State Council.

According to the statement, rumours have been circulating that the elections would not be supervised by judges.

The president of Al-Azhar University, Osama El-Abd, was sacked after hundreds of students suffered food poisoning earlier in April.

Around 500 students were hospitalised after eating at a cafeteria on Al-Azhar campus.

Al-Azhar’s supreme council called for elections to be held within two weeks to select his replacement.

Previous presidents were appointed by the head of state.

El-Abd was appointed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in 2011.