The race for Egypt's new president will be reshaped after the country's election commission disqualified ten candidates just days before the official beginning of the electoral campaign.

Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Khairat al-Shater, former vice President Omar Suleiman and Salafist Hazem Abou Ismail among others were barred after their appeals were rejected by the Higher Presidential Election Commission on Tuesday. Voters and supporters will reconsider whom they would vote for.

Suleiman, also former intelligence chief and Ismail had been widely regarded competitive rival candidates.

"Such a vital change in the presidential map affects both voters and other candidates," said Eglal Raafat, professor in political studies at Cairo University.

"The voters' choice now lies in a semi-moderate area, neither Islamists like Abou Ismail or Shater, nor loyalists to the former regime like Suleiman," she added.

Khairat al-Shater was excluded due to his questionable legal status as he was prisoned during the former regime on charges of funding a banned group, but the group still have the other candidate Mohamed Morsi, head of the Freedom and Justice Party.

"I don't think Mohamed Morsy has the same popularity in the Islamic circles like Shater," said Amr Hashem, political expert with the al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

Suleiman, who was believed to be the military council's candidate, was ruled out of the race for failing to collect sufficient numbers of signatures from 15 provinces.

The parliament was discussing a bill aimed at forbidding former regime remnants from competing the presidential post for 10 years. The bill was discussed directly after Suleiman announced his nomination.

"Such a decision made by the electoral presidential commission will stop the standing dispute between the parliament members over the political isolation law," Hashem said.

Supporters of Salafist candidate Abou Ismail threatened protests because of the elimination decision.

"Ismail supporters' threats won't work, no one will join them, Abou Ismail was discovered to be a liar in his mother case, so even his supporters won't dare to take any action," Raafat said.

"The Muslim Brotherhood call for demonstrations is in fact not to topple the ruling military, but to reunite with the other political forces, as they lost great part of their credits amid the political forces over the last period," she added.

According to the new map of the presidential race, Islamist Mohamed Aboul Fotouh, Freedom and Justice Party chairman Mohamed Morsi, former Arab League (AL) chief Amr Moussa and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik would be among the top hopefuls.

"I think the contest will end between Aboul Fotouh and Amr Moussa, both of whom meet the Egyptian aspirations," Raafat said.

"Aboul Fotouh is preferred by the moderate Islamists, and Moussa is preferred by the liberals, although he is from the former regime, but he is known to be against former regime's policies," she added.

Only 13 out of 23 candidates are now qualified for the presidential vote scheduled for May 23 and 24. The final list of the presidential candidates will be announced April 26.

"I think no more change will happen in the presidential race, and it has been already settled," Raafat said.

There will be a run-off round in mid-June if no one wins more than 50 percent of the votes. Due to the diversity of candidates, a second round is quite possible. The final results will be announced on June 21.

Egyptians are bracing for the historic presidential vote after they had succesful democratic parliamentary elections earlier this year. Islamist parties won more than 70 percent of the seats in the new parliament.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will hand over power by June 30. The council took over power in February 2011 after ex- President Hosni Mubarak was forced to end his 29-year-old rule amid mass anti-government protests.