For opponents, he is a symbol of Egypt's old guard under ousted leader Hosni Mubarak.

Hence protests after the country's supreme court upheld former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq's right to stand in this weekend's run-off presidential election.

Shafiq himself, a ex-military man appointed premier in the last days of Mubarak's rule, was delighted at the verdict, hailing it as "historic".
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