New anti-Mubarak law could disqualify fourth Egyptian presidential candidate

Less than a week after three leading presidential candidates were disqualified from Egypt’s presidential race on legal technicalities, a fourth may be added to the list following the ratification of a new law banning associates of deposed President Hosni Mubarak from running.

The “Disenfranchisement Law,” as it is popularly referred to in Egyptian media, stipulates that officials who served in senior government positions under Mubarak during the last 10 years will not be able to fill political roles in Egypt.

This would mean that presidential candidate Ahmad Shafiq — a former air force commander and civil aviation minister who was appointed prime minister by Mubarak during his final days in office — will not be able to run.

“The law… will be applied to General Ahmad Shafiq,” said Mahmoud Saqqa, head of the parliamentary bloc of the liberal Wafd party. He explained that since the law was registered in the country’s official legal records late Monday night, it applies immediately. The final list of presidential candidates is due to be announced on April 26.

A source in the presidential elections committee told Al-Ahram Tuesday that Shafiq is the only contender among Egypt’s 13 remaining candidates to be affected by the new law.

The disqualification of Shafiq, one of the only non-Islamist contenders in the presidential race, will further strengthen the candidacy of Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister and Arab League secretary general.

Moussa did not comment Tuesday on the new law, but he did react to news reports that Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman considered Egypt a more significant threat than Iran.

“If Israel believes that rebuilding Egypt is a threat, that’s its own business,” he commented on his Twitter account Monday.