Election HQ under guard after presidential candidates' barred from standing

There was heavy security on Sunday outside of the main Cairo offices of the commission, which on Saturday (April 14) disqualified ten presidential candidates, including Egypt's ex spy chief, the influential Muslim Brotherhood's candidate and a popular conservative preacher. The generals are due to hand power to the elected president on July 1.

Among those excluded are Salafi preacher Sheikh Hazem Salah Abu Ismail; the Muslim Brotherhood's former deputy leader, Khairat al-Shater; Egypt's former intelligence chief under Mubarak, Omar Suleiman and liberal candidate Ayman Nour.

Unless it is overturned, the decision could boost the prospects Amr Moussa, the former head of the Arab League who is one of the most well known political figures in Egypt and the Arab world. The disqualified candidates have 48 hours to appeal.

Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, the Salafi, was disqualified because his mother held U.S. citizenship, the state news agency reported, confirming previous reports fiercely denied by the Islamist who says he is the victim of a plot.

One of the protesters criticised the electoral body for overturning a court ruling this week that authorities must provide proof that the Sheikh's late mother did not hold dual nationality, reason enough to prevent him running.

He warned the disqualifications would lead to serious unrest saying the candidates.

"If they maintain the disqualification of these candidates, we fear there will be anger in the street. Because these people get a lot of support from the street. And these people entered the race as a result of proper legal decisions. And now, they are abrogating the court's decision, and cancelling the judiciary. The person who presided in the ruling about the citizenship of the mother of Sheikh Hazem Abu Ismail, is the deputy head of the State Court -- the second highest court after the Constitutional Court. And with regards to Khairat al-Shater -- now, they are trying to say that the case against him under Mubarak was correct. But he was excluded under Mubarak, and oppressed. So if that's the case, then we are still being ruled by Mubarak," said Mohamed Eissa.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Khairat al-Shater was also among those disqualified on Saturday. Shater's late entrance into the race angered some Egyptians who fear the Brotherhood is trying to dominate Egypt's post-revolutionary political landscape.

The Brotherhood already holds the largest number of seats in Parliament.

Brotherhood spokesperson Yasser Ali Al-Sayyed said that the pardon given to Shater by the head of the armed forces for his convictions during the Mubarak era should make him eligible to run.

"As we announced yesterday after the decision of the high judicial commission, we view this decision as purely political because our legal position is 100 percent correct and it was reviewed by more than five judges who are not part of the Freedom and Justice Party and many other legal experts. And they confirmed that our legal position is correct, because the last judgement (against Shater) was nullified and therefore all of the consequences of the decision have also been nullified. And we will put this forwards in our legal report to the High Commission for Presidential Elections tomorrow, God willing," he said.

Al-Sayyed also said that the Brotherhood would run its second candidate, the head of the Freedom and Justice Party, Mohamed Morsy, if Shater could not run, but that that step remained a last resort.

"Our position was announced in the party statement yesterday -- and as has been seen in the statements of party leaders -- we will exert pressure through all possible legal and peaceful means in order to secure our legal rights and which coincides with the most basic logical standards, until we are able to put forwards or primary candidate, Khairat al-Shater," he said, adding that if the appeal is rejected, they had another candidate.

The other major figure now disqualified was Omar Suleiman, Mubarak's intelligence chief and vice president in his last days in power.

Suleiman's last minute entrance into the race had angered many who took part in the uprising that toppled Mubarak, who see Suleiman as inextricably linked to the Mubarak era.

The controversy is slicing the country in two ahead of the crucial elections. On Friday (April 13) thousands of supporters of Islamist parties held a demonstration in Tahrir square to demand the exclusion of former regime figures from the elections.

The Islamist-dominated parliament duly voted to exclude former regime figures, but the decision is not fully binding and must be approved by the ruling military council and the courts.

At Friday's rally a supporter of popular Salafi candidate Hazem Abu Ismail said that if Abu Ismail was barred from the race his supporters would come out into the streets.

"The outcome you are suggesting will take place if there is a conspiracy. If there is a conspiracy then we will sacrifice our souls. And we will go out into the city squares in our millions. And we will never permit any kind of fraud in these elections, come what may," he said.

The elimination of three of the top candidates in what is being billed as Egypt's first real presidential vote would redraw the electoral map just a few weeks before the vote gets underway in May.

The election is expected to go to a June run-off between the top two candidates.