|
Egypt Court 'Cannot Rule on Poll Ban for ex-Regime Leaders'
[An Nahar] Egypt's constitutional court refused on Saturday to rule on a parliamentary draft bill barring former regime figures from standing in next month's presidential election, judicial sources said.The court, asked by the ruling military to decide on the bill's legality, said it could only consider a law after it comes into effect, the sources said. The military, in charge since an uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... last year, must first sign off on laws. The Islamist-majority parliament hurriedly approved the bill on April 12 after Mubarak's vice president and spy chief Omar Suleiman ... Now former Vice president of Egypt. From 1993 until his appointment to that office in 2011 he was Minister without Portfolio and Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID)... said he would run in the election. Suleiman has since been disqualified, for not gathering enough endorsements from all the country's provinces, along with the Moslem Brüderbund's Khairat El-Shater, barred because of a previous military court conviction. The provision, an amendment to the political activity law, excluded any president, vice president or leader of Mubarak's now dissolved ruling party from candidacy in the May 23 and May 24 election. If ratified by the military it may disqualify Mubarak's last Prime Minister, Ahmed Shafiq, who is also a former air force chief. But it would not exclude  Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa... who was head of the Arab League for approximately two normal lifespans, accomplishing nothing that was obvious to the casual observer ... , a front runner who served as Mubarak's foreign minister until 2001 before heading the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... . He faces the head of the Moslem Brüderbund's political arm, Mohammed Moursi. Posted by: Fred 2012-04-22 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=343244 |