Suleiman, Shater and Abu Ismail officially out of Egyptian presidential race

Election committee rejects the appeals of 10 candidates

Elhanan Miller is the former Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel

Salafist candidate Hazem Abu Ismail in 2011 (photo credit: AP/Amr Nabil)
Salafist candidate Hazem Abu Ismail in 2011 (photo credit: AP/Amr Nabil)

Egypt’s High Elections Committee rejected Tuesday evening the appeals of 10 presidential candidates, including Hosni Mubarak’s former chief of intelligence Omar Suleiman and Muslim Brotherhood candidate Khairat Shater.

Members of the committee told Al-Jazeera that they will clarify the legal reasons for the decision in the coming hours.

A member of Shater’s campaign told the Qatar-based news outlet that they had not forgone their right to run in the presidential elections scheduled to take place by June 30. The Muslim Brotherhood nominated Freedom and Justice party leader Muhammad Mursi as a fallback candidate, in case Shater was finally disqualified.

Meanwhile, a lawyer representing Salafist candidate Hazem Abu Ismail told Al-Jazeera that “a large crisis” will occur if his client is disqualified from the race. Abu-Ismail was banned due to his mother’s American citizenship.

 

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