Egypt's election body bars 10 candidates from the presidential poll

The Egyptian presidential election commission disqualified 10 out of 23 candidates from the presidential race on Saturday evening, including three major candidates, the former Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman, the presidential candidate of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Khairat al-Shater and Salafi Hazem Abu Ismail, according to Farouk Sultan, head of the presidential election commission.

All of them have not met the requirements for citizenship, signatures and other criteria, added Sultan.These disqualified candidates may appeal the decision of the Electoral Commission within 48 hours.

According to reports in Egyptian media, Suleiman was disqualified because he lacks a few votes in his list of supporters According to the Egyptian daily Al Akhbar, 30,000 signatures were required for any candidate to enter the presidential poll, but Omar Suleiman was accompanied by 72,000 voters' signatures collected in one day, that was recorded a few hours before the registration deadline.

Al-Shater was ruled out because he has a criminal record. He was imprisoned in 2007, before being released by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in March 2011. A spokesman for the Shater campaign said their candidate had already prepared his appeal, Al- arabiya news reported.

Hazem Salah Abu Ismail was disqualified because suspicions remain that his mother has American citizenship, a condition that would prevent him from the presidential poll. Abu Ismail's lawyer, Nizar Ghorab, told Reuters he expected "a major crisis to happen in the next few hours as last week a court in Cairo ruled that Abu Ismail would be able to run for president".

In addition, the leader of the Ghad Party, Ayman Nour, are among the unqualified candidates, Egyptian media reported. No reason was given regarding this candidate.

However, Egyptian election presidential election commission allowed the race for favorites such as Islamist Mohamed Aboul Fotouh, the president of the Party for Freedom and Justice, Mohamed Morsi, the former head of the Arab League and Mubarak’s foreign minister for 10 years, Amr Moussa, and Mubarak’s last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq.

On April 12, Egypt’s parliament approved a law that excludes former senior officials of the Hosni Mubarak regime from the presidential race. To become an active law, it has to be promulgated by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).

On Friday, thousands of Egyptians from Islamist movements went out to the streets in Cairo, to protest against former allies of ousted President Hosni Mubarak running for president.

Egypt's presidential election committee set May 23-24 and final results are expected to be published no later than June 30. Pro-democracy activists have been protesting for months in order to advance the presidential election the military council to leave power. They accuse the Military Council of mis-managing the transition and violating human rights.