CAIRO (Reuters) – The body overseeing Egypt’s presidential election disqualified former
prime minister Ahmed Shafiq as a candidate on Tuesday after the ruling military council approved a law banning Hosni
Mubarak’s top officials from the race.
“The disqualification
of former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq came in light of his position as prime minister at the end of the previous regime,” an
official in the electoral commission said.
The new law denies political rights to anyone who served as president, vice
president or prime minister in the decade prior to Mubarak’s removal from power on February 11, 2011. It also applies to
anyone who served in top posts in the ruling party.