Egypt's highest court will rule Thursday on whether one of the two candidates for this weekend's presidential election is eligible to run, according to dpa. The court is reviewing the legality of a law barring senior officials from the regime of deposed president Hosny Mubarak from running for public office. If it upholds the ban, that could see Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last premier, barred from standing in this weekend's race, and the possible cancellation of the election - throwing the country's democratic transition into confusion. The Constitutional Court's decision comes two days before the presidential run-offs contested by the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Mohammed Morsi and Shafiq, an ex-military general. The same court is to rule Thursday if a law regulating last year's parliamentary elections was unconstitutional. If the court invalidates the law, the Islamist-dominated parliament will be dissolved and a new election will be called. Hundreds of military and security forces, backed by armoured vehicles, have been deployed around the court building in Cairo for fear of rioting.
