Thousands of Islamists rally outside Defense Ministry in Cairo

Several thousand Egyptians marched on the country's Defense Ministry late on Friday night to demand that the Presidential Election commission be dissolved after it upheld a ban on two Islamist presidential candidates and allowed Hosni Mubarak's former Prime Minister to run.
               
The protesters were mainly from the ultra-conservative Salafi' movement, with many of them supporters of Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, who was disqualified from the race because his mother held dual US-Egyptian citizenship.
               
Suspicions over the army's intentions were fueled in the past week when Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister who like every president for the past six decades has held a top military post, was first thrown out of the race and then reinstated hours before the final list was declared.
             
Egypt's presidential elections are set for May 23-24 with a run-off scheduled in June for the top two vote-getters. No candidate is expected to seal a first round win with more than 50 percent of the votes.