Egypt’s constitutional court ruled Thursday that former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq can run for president, despite ties to the deposed regime of Hosni Mubarak.


According to Washington Post, the court simultaneously recommended disbanding one-third of the country’s Islamist-dominated parliament because of a violation of election law.


The eagerly anticipated rulings were a setback for Egypt’s revolutionaries and Islamists on the eve of the country’s landmark presidential vote, which begins Saturday.


By keeping Shafiq — who served as Mubarak’s last prime minister before Mubarak was ousted — in the race, the court appeared to side with Egyptians who see the former air force chief as best suited to lead a country reeling from a year and a half of chaotic military rule.


Shafiq will compete for the presidency against Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood candidate. Morsi and his allies say Shafiq wants to return Egypt’s government to the repressive tactics Mubarak favored. Shafiq, in turn, says a Morsi victory would transform Egypt into an ultra-conservative Islamic state.


The court’s second ruling on Thursday said that political parties wrongly fielded candidates for the one-third of parliamentary seats that were supposed to be set aside for independent candidates. That could mean that the lawmakers who won those seats will be removed from office and another round of voting held.


Both decisions are widely expected to trigger protests, in large part because the judges on the top court are Mubarak appointees and seen as sympathetic to the old order.


“Both decisions empower the Mubarak status-quo, which is no surprise as the judges of the court were appointed by the latter, and represent a part of the so-called ‘deep-state,’ ” Omar Ashour, an Egypt expert at Exeter University, said in an e-mail.


The decisions could set the stage for a confrontation between security forces, which were recently given vast powers to detain civilians, and revolutionaries who fear the return of the Mubarak-era system of repression could be imminent.