'Egyptian panel confirms Suleiman, Shater & Abu Ismail can’t run for presidency'

"...The sudden departures of the three front-runners come just six weeks before voting begins, the latest snarl in a historic race that’s been entangled in controversies and conspiracy theories from the outset. With anger over the ruling, many Egyptians worry, the campaign season will get rougher still.
“The ouster of Shater, Abu Ismail and Suleiman is drawing a new map for the presidential elections. They owned the voters in all three fields they represent,” said Gamal Sultan, a Cairo-based researcher of Islamist movements and editor of the independent newspaper The Egyptians.

The remaining candidates _ among them former Arab League chief Amr Moussa and the pro-reform Islamist Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh _ had been viewed as weak and all but finished until the commission’s ruling. By contrast, the three disqualified candidates together represented constituencies that are millions strong. Some Islamist supporters already have begun a civil disobedience campaign as a show of force..."