Dancer and business tycoon among disqualified Egypt election candidates

Egyptian dancer Sama el-Masry and Mubarak-era business tycoon Ahmed Ezz were disqualified on Thursday by the Supreme Administrative Court from running for parliament in Egypt's upcoming elections, set to take place from 17 to 19 October.

According to the court decision, dancer Masry was disqualified for lacking a "good reputation", a mandatory requirement without which members of parliament may face "instabilities" in carrying out their duties.

The court based its decision on Masry's history of television shows, interviews, and music videos, concluding that she violated values and ethics.

The controversial belly dancer, who was hoping to represent the Cairo district of Gamaliyya, had come into the spotlight for her criticism of Islamists during the rule of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

As for Ezz, the High Elections Committee had already disqualified him from running for parliament in February, as he failed to present the necessary financial documents after his assets were frozen over suspicions of profiteering and exploitation of influence.

The committee's decision was upheld by the court in September and again on Thursday, despite Ezz's appeal.

According to local media, Ezz reacted to the court decision by saying: "How can someone with my kind of expertise be banned from taking part in the elections?"

In August 2015, the Cairo Criminal Court ordered the freezing of Ezz's assets, restricting him from creating new bank accounts and rendering him unable to present the statements required for running in parliamentary elections.

His decision to run in the upcoming parliamentary elections had drawn criticism from several January 25 revolutionary political figures and parties - as the business tycoon was widely believed to have engineered widespread fraud during the 2010 parliamentary elections, securing an unprecedented majority for his party in the chamber.