Egypt elections body reinstates last Mubarak PM as candidate
Egypt's election organizers reinstated the presidential candidacy of former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik on Wednesday, a day after excluding him from the race under a law banning top officials of deposed President Hosni Mubarak.
The state-run Middle East News Agency said the presidential electoral committee had accepted an appeal from Shafik challenging the panel's decision Tuesday that he was ineligible to run for the presidency in elections that begin next month.
"The decision to accept my client's appeal proves that the electoral committee functions as an independent body according to the rule of law," Shafik's lawyer, Shawqi Sayyid, was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera, the satellite TV network.
Shafik was the last prime minister under Mubarak, who was overthrown Feb. 11, 2011, by a dramatic pro-democracy movement inspired by the "Arab Spring."