By Shaimaa Fayed, Tom Perry : Reuters

CAIRO: Egypt's ruling military has approved a law banning top officials who worked under Hosni Mubarak from running for president, ruling out his last prime minister and possibly helping former Arab League chief Amr Moussa in his race against Islamists.
 

Ahmed Shafiq's elimination all but guarantees that Egypt will be led by a president who does not hail from a military background for the first time since army officers overthrew the monarchy in 1952. Shafiq is a former air force commander and was seen by some as the army's choice when he first decided to run.
 

His removal also narrows the options for voters who do not want an Islamist head of state: the other front-runners are the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi and Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, a former member of the group who said he was confident of victory in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday.
 

Egypt holds its first presidential election since Mubarak was ousted in February 2011 on May 23 and 24, with a run-off between the top two candidates likely in June. The ruling generals who assumed power from Mubarak last year are due to hand power to the new president on July 1.
 

The few opinion polls that are available have put former Arab League chief Moussa in the lead, suggesting he will make it into the run-off against one of the Islamists. However, many voters are undecided.
 

Shafiq seemed likely to win votes among Egyptians who saw him as a vote for stability to end more than a year of turmoil.
 

"Part of the votes that would have gone to Shafiq would go to Amr Moussa, because he is the only figure with government experience that remains in the race," said Mustapha Kamel al-Sayyid, a professor of political science at Cairo University.
 

The first real race for Egypt's presidency had already taken one dramatic turn when earlier this month the authorities disqualified three other front-runners, including Mubarak's former vice-president, Omar Suleiman, and two top Islamists.
 

The army-led transition has been punctuated by outbursts of lethal street violence and is being increasingly undermined by rising tensions between Islamists and secular-minded politicians.
 

Nor is political uncertainty likely to end with the presidential vote. Questions remain about how much influence the powerful military will wield after the election and to what extent presidential powers will be diluted in a new constitution.
 

EX-BROTHERHOOD MEMBER PREDICTS OWN VICTORY
 

Abol Fotouh, a member of the Brotherhood for decades, moved back to the heart of the race when his rivals, including the party's first-choice candidate, were disqualified.
 

The Brotherhood expelled Abol Fotouh last year when he defied its wishes by deciding to run for president. On Tuesday, he told Reuters he expected to win the election outright by securing more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round. "God willing, we will take most of the Brotherhood's votes," he said.
 

"We are working and organising on the basis that we will win from the first round and not in the runoff," the 60-year old said in an interview. "As elections approach, our chances of winning are increasing."
 

A diplomat in Cairo said the race still appeared to be very open. "The recent developments tend to favour the centrist candidates: Moussa and Abol Fotouh," said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
 

The law barring Mubarak-era officials from running was drafted by the Islamist-dominated parliament in response to former spy chief Omar Suleiman's late decision to enter the race. News of his candidacy brought tens of thousands of demonstrators - both Islamists and liberals - into the streets in protest.
 

Ahmed Sarhan, a spokesman for former Mubarak prime minister Shafiq, said the move to ban officials like Shafiq ran counter to the constitution.
 

"In our view, any attempt to exclude or deprive citizen Ahmed Shafiq of his political rights is a constitutional transgression," he said.
 

Another spokesman for the Shafiq campaign said he would appeal against any move to disqualify him. The commission overseeing the election has the final say on Shafiq's candidacy. Its decisions cannot be appealed in the courts.
 

Analysts say Shafiq's exclusion seemed inevitable after the military council approved the legislation, which took legal force on Tuesday, according to an official document.
 

The law bans anyone who occupied top positions during the last decade of Mubarak's rule from running, but does not apply to former ministers, meaning it does not affect Moussa's bid. He served as foreign minister for a decade under Mubarak before becoming Arab League chief in 2001.
 

Mubarak appointed Shafiq as prime minister in his last days in power to try to defuse popular anger in the streets. Shafiq had served as Mubarak's minister of civil aviation and won credit for overseeing the redevelopment of Cairo airport.