However, Abu Bakr said in a statement that the dismissal decision could be appealed before the Brotherhood’s Higher Court.

“The Brotherhood’s Central Court has decided to end membership of the five for an outright violation of the decision by the group’s Consultative Council to boycott the elections,” Abu Bakr said.

The Brotherhood’s political arm, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), is also considering punitive action against the five candidates, head of the party’s Central Court Taysir Fityani said. “We expect a ruling to be issued on Saturday,” Fityani said, without going into details.

The Brotherhood and the IAF decided last month to boycott the forthcoming elections, citing the government’s failure to provide adequate assurances that the polling process will not be rigged as happened in the 2007 polls, when the IAF returned only six deputies in the 110-member lower house of Parliament, compared to 17 in the previous chamber.

The state-funded National Center for Human Rights, the country’s main watchdog, acknowledged that the 2007 elections witnessed certain “irregularities”, including vote buying and manipulation of electorate records.