It’s countdown to elections,and as we noted up top, the campaign to get people out and voting is on full gear. Media censorship issues also continues to be a hot topic among the talking heads.

But first, do we really have 6.6 mn state workers in our Jabba the Hutt of a bureaucracy? The nation’s over bloated bureaucracy took center stage on Al Hayah Al Youm. Host Tamer Amin spoke with Deputy Planning Minister Salah El Sheikh on the extent of the problem and difficulty in breaking bureaucratic entanglements. El Sheikh could not verify the number of state workers (which he says is to big to give an accurate accounting), but said the state has around 6.6 mn jobs and functions (watch, runtime: 3:25). We doubt very many of these are vacant.

We now return to your TV yelling at you to get out to vote: Kol Youm’s Amr Adib said Egyptians should share their photos with their families while raising the flags at the polling stations to slam the notions that Egyptians are abstaining from voting (watch, runtime: 12:15). Adib spoke with Egypt’s Ambassador to Kuwait Tarek al-Qoni who reiterated expectations of a high turnout from the Egyptian community there (watch, runtime: 4:51). Not much else is different with the other talking heads.

With the atmosphere being political charged, we shouldn’t be surprised that MPs of parliament’s ICT Committee are once again bringing up the foolish notion of banning Facebook. What is surprising, however, is that the issue appears to have perturbed Adib who said it’s not possible to close domains such as Facebook and that it won’t help. Adib also rehashed Hona Al Asima’s criticisms of the fake news snitching hotline: that is gives too much power to people unqualified to assess media content, and it would open the floodgates to frivolous litigation (watch, runtime: 41:15).

The death of Egyptian student Mariam Mostafa yesterday in a Nottingham hospital after a violent attack dominated both print media and airwaves. Egypt’s ambassador to the UK Nasser Kamel told Masaa DMC’s Osama Kamal that the Foreign Ministry is pushing for results on the investigation to her case (watch, runtime: 6: 19). Assistant Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs Khaled Rizk tells Al Masry Al Youm= the embassy in London has urged the British authorities to investigate the hospital over medical negligence. Mariam was left in critical condition last month after a group of women violently assaulted her in what was considered a racist attack. A teenage girl arrested over the attack was released on conditional bail as the police investigation continues.

Startup Hood won the CIB-sponsored Hona Al Shabab competition on Hona Al Asema. Hood was awarded EGP 100k in funding from CIB. Tefly and Al7arefa came in second and third place respectively (watch, runtime: 1:45).