Controversial candidates Ezz, El-Masry out of Egypt’s electoral race

The Supreme Administrative Court upheld on Wednesday decisions preventing two controversial candidates — steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz and belly dancer Sama El-Masry — from running in the approaching parliamentary elections.

Both candidates lodged appeals against their elimination from the polls, only to be turned down in court.

Ezz’s national post office account — where he had deposited his money — was frozen in September by a decree of the prosecution and the country’s elicit gains authority. He was eliminated from the electoral race as a result.

Ezz, one of the Mubarak-era oligarchs, opened the post office account recently after a Cairo criminal court in August ordered the seizure of his funds and prohibited him from opening new accounts at any bank. He presented his application to the Higher Election Committee (HEC) on 10 September despite the Supreme Court upholding a ruling on 8 September to disqualify him from the parliamentary race.

He also served as the national organiser of Mubarak’s now-dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP) and acted as the party’s spokesperson in parliament between 2005 and 2010.

The court also disqualified controversial belly dancer El-Masry from the parliamentary race after accepting an appeal by lawyer Samir Sabri against a previous court ruling that rejected her initial disqualification.

The lawyer argued in his appeal that El-Masry did not meet the condition that stipulates candidates must have a good reputation.

El-Masry produced a number of songs that touched on political issues in the forms of videos that were widely seen as tacky and overtly sexual.

On Saturday, the Higher Election Committee (HEC), the judicial body in charge of supervising Egypt’s upcoming parliamentary elections, announced that seven electoral coalitions would contest the first stage of the polls, scheduled between 17 and 28 October.

source: Ahram online