CAIRO, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- About 2,400 Coptic electors in Egypt began voting Monday to choose a new pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, officials said.
The election to select the 118th head of the 16 million-member church is the first Coptic papal vote in 41 years, the Egypt Independent reported.
One of five candidates will be chosen to succeed Pope Shenouda III, who died in March after a battle with lung cancer. He was 88.
The candidates include Bishop Rafael, 54, the current assistant bishop for central Cairo; Bishop Tawadros, 60; and priests Rafael Ava Mina, 70, Seraphim al-Souriani, 53, and Pachomious al-Suriani, 49.
Officials said 2,412 Coptics were eligible to vote. Ahram Online reported the electors were drawn from among Coptic archbishops, bishops, lay council members and agents of the archdioceses, along with prominent Coptic laymen. Five electors are from the Ethiopian Church.
The names of the top three vote-getters will be written on pieces of paper and placed in a vessel on the altar of St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo.
A blindfolded child will be asked to select one of the names from the vessel Nov. 4, the Egypt Independent reported.
The candidate chosen will officially become pope Nov. 18.
