A potential candidate who meets the requirements of the bylaws must be endorsed by six bishops or twelve of the 24 members of the General Lay Council of the Church, a church governing body composed primarily of laypeople elected by the congregation to five year terms. A Nominations Committee is then formed by nine bishops appointed by the Holy Synod and nine laypersons elected by the General Community Council. The Nominations Committee, chaired by the locum tenens patriarch, narrows the field of candidates to a group of five or seven. Each diocese then contributes twelve electors to an Electoral College; their numbers are augmented by the members of The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the General Community Council, Coptic Orthodox political leaders and journalists and envoys of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The voting of the Electoral College results in a ranking of the remaining five or seven candidates, and the three highest-ranked candidates advance to the final stage of the selection process.