Africa

Home page

Africa

Doubts cast on Egyptian Islamist’s presidential bid

07 April 2012 22:47 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A popular Islamist’s bid to contest presidential elections in Egypt was thrown into doubt Saturday after the election commission said his mother was a US citizen, APA reports.

The commission, which is responsible for the May polls, said it had been officially notified by the Foreign Ministry that the mother of Hazem Salah Abu Ismail became a citizen of the United States in 2006, according to the report.

Under electoral law, presidential candidates and their parents must be only Egyptian citizens, dpa reported.

Abu Ismail, 50, a leading Salafist lawyer and preacher, has emerged as a favourite for the presidential elections - the country’s first since the ouster of president Hosny Mubarak in February 2011.

Thousands of Abu Ismail’s supporters gathered in central Cairo on Friday to protest what they called a "plot" to invalidate his bid.

Abu Ismail has attracted thousands of dedicated followers with his revolutionary and anti-US speeches.

If he were to be disqualified it could boost the chances of the influential Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Khairat al-Shater.

A final list of eligible contenders is expected to be announced later in April.