Former cronies of Mubarak barred from presidentship

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) last night endorsed a bill passed by parliament imposing a 10-year ban on senior former regime officials holding any constitutional post, state-run newspaper al-Ahram reported.

The decree has put a big question mark on the fate of former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik and former vice-president and spy chief Omar Suleiman, who have both announced their candidature for the presidentship.

The new law will come into force on Friday and al-Ahram said that there are no clear signs whether Shafik will make it to the final list.

Egypt's election commission rejected last week all the appeals of ten disqualified presidential candidates, thereby leaving only 13 in the reckoning out of the 23 who had filed papers for the presidency, elections for which are to be held on May 23 and 24.