Mona El-Nahhas wonders who is entitled to stand in the presidential elections The registration period for presidential candidates closed Sunday noon amid a flurry of speculation that some of the 23 candidates who have submitted their papers could be excluded from the race on legal grounds. The speculation is unlikely to last long. The Presidential Election Commission (HEC) has said it will publish a final list of candidates on 26 April. Under Article 26 of SCAF's constitutional declaration the commission's decisions are final, and cannot be appealed. Salafist preacher Hazem Salah Abu Ismail tops the list of candidates expected to be disqualified. Election regulations state that neither candidates nor their parents can have non-Egyptian nationality. On Saturday PEC announced that Abu Ismail's mother was granted US nationality in October 2006 after applying in January of the same year. A memorandum sent by the US Department of State to that effect, a copy of the request signed by Ismail's mother and a copy of her American passport have now been added to the file of the candidate and will be considered as part of his application to register. While Abu Ismail has filed a lawsuit before the Administrative Court contesting the authenticity of the papers concerning his late mother's nationality, his credibility looks close to breaking point. Abu Ismail's lawyer Nezar Ghorab argues that even if his client's mother held a US passport, under Egyptian law it does not automatically mean she was a US citizen. For her US nationality to be recognised under Egyptian law she would have needed approval by the Egyptian Interior Ministry, which she did not obtain. Few commentators are convinced with such legalistic sophistry. Indeed, some sources say Abu Ismail may not only be forced out of the presidential race but could also face prosecution for misrepresentation since in his nomination papers he certified that neither he nor his parents were foreign nationals. "The penalty for such charge," leftist lawyer Mohamed El-Damati told Al-Ahram Weekly, "ranges from a three- to 15-year imprisonment." Khairat El-Shater, who resigned as deputy supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood to stand as their presidential candidate, also faces legal hurdles. In 2007 El-Shater received a seven-year jail sentence after being found guilty of money laundering and belonging to a banned group. He was released in March 2011 on health grounds. Technically, to be eligible to exercise political rights any convicted criminal must first obtain a rehabilitation ruling which can only be issued six years after the convict has been released after serving his or her full sentence. El-Shater's lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maqsoud has argued that his client received a full pardon from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces over a month ago, and therefore the rehabilitation ruling does not apply. For reasons that have never been made clear the pardon was kept secret. Legal experts question the validity of Abdel-Maqsoud's argument, pointing out that under Article 56 of the constitutional declaration SCAF is not entitled to issue general pardons. The Muslim Brotherhood is sufficiently concerned about El-Shater's eligibility that it has named Mohamed Mursi, leader of its political arm the Freedom and Justice Party, as an alternative candidate should El-Shater be forced out. A day after filling in his nomination papers and Ayman Nour, chairman of the liberal Ghad Al-Thawra Party, was banned by the Administrative Court from registering on the electoral role, a necessary condition for presidential candidates. Nour received a five-year jail term in 2005 in a case many people suspect was fabricated by the regime. Although he, like El-Shater, received a pardon -- Nour's was not kept secret -- from SCAF he is caught in a similar legal bind. Mortada Mansour, who is currently standing trial for his alleged role in organising the notorious Battle of the Camel, received a rehabilitation ruling from Giza Criminal Court for the one-year jail term passed against him in 2007 after he was found guilty of insulting a court panel. Yet should he be convicted in the current case against him his candidacy will automatically be nullified. If a verdict is brought against Mansour after the presidential elections, which by some fluke Mansour wins, then the results will be cancelled and new elections held. Islamist candidates Selim El-Awwa and Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh have also been embroiled in questions of nationality. El-Awwa's father was rumoured to have inherited Syrian nationality from his own father, while Abul-Fotouh was said to have a Qatari passport. No rumours have managed to attach themselves to Amr Moussa as far as nationality is concerned, though it has emerged that the former Arab League secretary- general has a French half brother. Earlier suggestions that Moussa evaded military service were effectively countered by his status as an only son, thus exempting him from serving in the military. The sudden discovery of a French step-sibling does not alter his status in this regard. Mubarak's head of intelligence and vice president Omar Suleiman, and his last prime minister Ahmed Shafik, could be excluded from the presidential race should parliament and SCAF agree to the application of a draft law currently being discussed by the People's Assembly Legislative Committee that seeks to exclude remnants of the former regime from standing in elections for a period of 10 years.
