Thirteen to stand in Egypt presidential election

Egyptian officials have published the final list of those allowed to stand in the first presidential election to be held after the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak last year.

The list contains the names of 13 candidates, out of 23 who had initially applied to stand.

It includes former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq. He was excluded from the vote on Tuesday, but later readmitted.

The first round of the election is to be held on 23-24 May.

Other prominent hopefuls on the list are the the chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), Mohammed Mursi; the secularist former Arab League chief Amr Moussa; and an independent Islamist who broke away from the Muslim Brotherhood, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh.

Announcing the list, Farouk Sultan, head of the Higher Presidential Election Commission, said the body had decided to accept Mr Shafiq’s appeal against his exclusion.

Mr Shafiq’s candidacy had been judged to infringe a law passed by the Islamist-dominated parliament that banned former Mubarak-era officials from standing.