Filed by KOSU News in World News.
June 14, 2012

Egypt’s highest court ruled today that Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister in Hosni Mubarak’s regime, may remain in that country’s presidential race despite a law passed by the Egyptian parliament that bars senior Mubarak aides from seeking office.

NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson tells our Newscast Desk that the court also issued a ruling that effectively dissolves one-third of Egypt’s parliament.

As The Associated Press writes, Shafiq and Islamist Mohammed Morsi “finished as top vote-getters from the first round of the [presidential] election last month” and were headed for a runoff vote set for this Saturday and Sunday.

But “the Supreme Constitutional Court was meeting to consider the validity of a law passed in April by the Islamist-led parliament that denied political rights to anyone who held a senior post in government or ruling party in the last decade of Mubarak’s rule,” Reuters says.

It was the so-called political isolation law, as al-Jazeera puts it.

Now, there are fears of violence in the streets. Security forces are reproted to be surrounding the court, as protesters gather. Critics say the court is beholden to the former president. [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]