Presidential election bans

Egypt’s election commission has disqualified 10 presidential hopefuls, including Hosni Mubarak’s former spy chief and fundamentalist Islamists, from running.

The surprise decision left a field of moderates in the race for the country’s first post-revolutionary leader.

The elimination of the three most powerful and controversial candidates could go in two directions with just weeks to go before the vote, observers say.

It could plunge the Arab world’s most populous nation into a new political crisis, or just the opposite, defuse it.

Farouk Sultan, head of the Supreme Presidential Election Commission appointed by Egypt’s military rulers to oversee the vote, did not give reasons for the disqualifications.