Egypt's National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) said on Tuesday that it will temporary freeze the activity of two of its members who are running in the upcoming parliamentary elections, a council statement read.

The council will freeze the activities of rights lawyer Hafez Abu-Seida and journalist Mohamed Abdel-Aziz until the end of the parliamentary elections as the council is one of the entities monitoring the polls and it wants to adhere to "objectivity and independence" during monitoring.

Voting is underway on Tuesday for by-elections on PP-16 provincial assembly seat in Punjab's Attock district.

The polling began at 8am and will continue until 5pm without any pause.

The PP-16 seat fell vacant after the killing of Punjab home minister Shuja Khanzada in a suicide attack on Aug 16.

Only two candidates are contesting for by-polls in the PP-16 constituency, which are being held under the supervision of army and Rangers.

JEDDAH: Candidates contesting the municipal council elections later this year are banned from using the state logo and flag, mosques, public buildings and sports clubs in their campaigns.
The prohibitions include religious and tribal signs and symbols, names and photographs of public officials, and public and private television stations inside and outside the country, a local publication reported recently.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat stated on Tuesday that he has no trouble to elect head of the Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun as president.

“I have no problem to elect Aoun as president for the Republic as it will change nothing of Lebanon’s difficulties,” said Jumblat in an interview to the As Safir daily.

A total of 7,600 candidates are in fray for municipal council elections. Judeh Al-Qahtani, president of the executive committee of municipal elections, said 1,066 of them are women.
He said the scrutiny of the candidates’ papers would take some time. “The final list will be published in two months,” he said. Al-Qahtani said there had been no challenges, either for candidates or voters.

Candidates in municipal council elections are holding meetings in a number of commercial centers to attract votes and gain the confidence of people.
In these gatherings, they are talking about election culture, the importance of women’s participation and achievement of the “main goal.”