Hany Kameel, member of the Coptic Orthodox Church’s voter registration committee, announced yesterday that the committee has prepared the final list of the select electorate
Hany Kameel, member of the Coptic Orthodox Church’s voter registration committee, announced yesterday that the committee has prepared the final list of the select electorate body of Coptic Orthodox voters who will vote for the election of the new pope. This electorate should elect three names out of five or seven nominees short-listed by a special Church committee out of 17 nominees for the papacy which has been vacant since the death of Pope Shenouda III last March. The names of the three front runners are placed on the altar during Holy Mass, after which a draw is conducted and the name drawn out by a blindfolded child is pronounced the new pope.
Kameel declared that, as stipulated in the 1957 by-laws for the election of the pope, the voter lists will be hung on glass boards at St Mark’s in Abassiya, Cairo, for voters to check and submit any contestation within the space of two weeks.
The number of eligible voters is 2945. Among these are 93 Egyptian bishops and archbishops; three non-Egyptian bishops: Anba Athanasius of France, Anba Sarofim of England and Anba Macarius of Eritrea, will not be voting. According to the 1957 by-laws, only Egyptians have the right to vote. The voter list includes 81 bishop deputies; 879 notaries from among the clergy; 34 monastery abbots; 35 monastery secretaries, and 52 monks. The laity include four ministers, two governors, six former MPs, 21 journalists, 27 members of the Coptic Orthodox Melli (Community) Council, and 139 women.
The Ethiopian Church, according to Mr Kameel, will be represented by five members of its clergy, and the Eritrean Church by ten. They cannot participate in the voting, however, but will only attend as observers, and will participate in the enthronement ceremony.
According to acting patriarch Anba Pacomeus, it is expected that the elections of the new pope, the 118th in the line of Coptic Orthodox popes since St Mark the Apostle, will take place next October.
WATANI International
20 July 2012