Rumours about other candidates' foreign connections are cleared up

Zeinab El Gundy, Thursday 5 Apr 2012

After a day of rumours the electoral commission has issued a statement saying that Abul-Fotouh has no other nationality than the Egyptian nationality, at the same time as Moussa's campaign slams claims he has Jewish relatives

Farouk Sultan (Photo: Al-Ahram)

The Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission issued a statement on Thursday regarding the recent rumours about presidential candidate Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh’s nationality.

"The Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission has received reports from the security authorities in the country stating that the first six presidential candidates, including Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh, each hold no nationalities other than the Egyptian nationality,” the commission's statement read.

"Abul-Fotouh is a holder of Egyptian nationality only," the statement added, addressing recent rumours that the candidate might hold a second passport.

The first six presidential candidates to have applied to the commission are: Ahmed Awad Ali, Abul Ezz El-Hariri, Mohamed Abdel Fatah, Hossam Khairallah, Amr Moussa and Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh.

Regarding Salafist favourite Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail’s candidacy and the controversy surrounding his mother’s apparent American citizenship, the commission is still waiting for a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the issue.

The commission has already received a letter from the Ministry of Interior saying that the late Nawal Abdel-Aziz, Abu-Ismail's mother, entered Egypt three times in 2010 prior to her death, using her American passport, but it is waiting for a further statement on the nationality of Abdel-Aziz from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On the other hand, the Amr Moussa campaign also issued a statement on Thursday about the rumours that have been spreading regarding Moussa’s military service and the ethnicity of his half-brother.

Reports on several news websites suggested that Moussa had skipped his compulsory military service and that his half-brother was the son of a Jewish woman who left Egypt for Israel.

"Presidential candidate Amr Moussa was exempted from military service because he was the only child of his mother, his father having died when he was only nine years old,” the statement read.

"Moussa’s half-brother is called Pierre, and he is the son of a French Christian woman, not a Jewish woman, with respect to all religions," the statement added.