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| Africa North |
| Egypt army passes law banning ex-PM from vote |
| 2012-04-25 |
| CAIRO: EgyptÂ’s ruling military has approved a law that bans top Hosni Mubarak-era officials from running for the presidency, excluding his last prime minister and further depleting a field reduced by the disqualifications of other front-runners. A copy of the law published on the website of the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper said the legislation would take effect from Tuesday. It showed that the bill had been printed in the official gazette, confirming that the legislation drafted by the Islamist-dominated parliament had been approved by the military. The law denies political rights to anyone who served as president, vice president or prime minister in the decade prior to MubarakÂ’s removal from power on Feb. 11, 2011. It further applies to anyone who served in top posts in the ruling party. That means Ahmed Shafiq, appointed as prime minister by Mubarak in his last days in power, is out of the race. He had been seen as one of four remaining front-runners for the presidency of the Arab worldÂ’s most populous country. The others are Mohamed Mursi, the Muslim BrotherhoodÂ’s candidate, Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, a former member of the Islamist group, and Amr Moussa, a former Arab League chief and an ex-foreign minister. The law exempts former ministers who were not prime minister, so will not affect MoussaÂ’s candidacy. Parliament approved the legislation earlier this month, an amendment to an existing law governing political rights, in response to a decision by Omar Suleiman, MubarakÂ’s former vice president and intelligence chief, to run for the presidency. But Suleiman was disqualified a few days later for another reason: he failed to gather the required number of voter endorsements required to run. The committee overseeing the vote also banned nine other contenders, including the Muslim BrotherhoodÂ’s first-choice candidate and a popular Islamist preacher. |
| Posted by:Steve White |