The Presidential Elections Commission announced Thursday the final list of candidates qualified to run in the election slated for 23 and 24 May.
The 13 candidates are: Freedom and Justice Party nominee Mohamed Morsy, Socialist Popular Alliance Party nominee Abul Ezz al-Hariry, Democratic Generation Party nominee Mohamed Fawzy Eissa, Democratic Peace Party nominee Hossam Khairallah, Salafi-oriented Asala Party nominee Abdullah al-Ashal, Tagammu Party nominee Hesham al-Bastawisi, and independents former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, former Arab League head Amr Moussa, Islamist reformer Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh, Mahmoud Hossam Galal, Islamist Mohamed Selim al-Awa, Nasserist Hamdeen Sabbahi and leftist attorney Khaled Ali.
Shafiq was included on the list after appealing a Tuesday commission decision excluding him from running based on the recently-approved Political Isolation Law, which strips top-level Mubarak officials of political rights for 10 years.
Commission head Farouk Sultan said the presidential election will be conducted as scheduled.
The commission is not at odds with any of the candidates eliminated from the presidential race, said Sultan, rejecting threats against the commission and any doubts about its impartiality.
Any illegal actions taken by the previously disqualified candidates in their campaigns or appeals process will be referred to the Public Prosecution for investigation, Sultan said.
The commission accepted Shafiq's appeal against his elimination based on what it interprets as the unconstitutionality of the new Political Isolation Law, he said, adding that the commission has referred the law to the Supreme Constitutional Court for review.
On 17 April, the commission eliminated 10 candidates who it ruled had not met candidacy requirements, including Omar Suleiman, the former intelligence chief; Khairat al-Shater, the Muslim Brotherhood's primary candidate; Ayman Nour, head of Ghad al-Thawra Party; and Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, a Salafi preacher.
