ANKARA, September 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A moderate Turkish Islamic leader and front-runner in upcoming elections faced the risk of being barred from general elections in November after the country's top judicial court on Monday, September 16, overturned a decision to clear his criminal record.

The appeals court annulled a ruling by a lower court, which said the criminal record of Recep Tayyip Erdogan should be erased following changes to legislation under which he was convicted for sedition in 1998, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AK), currently in the opposition, said "a shadow will be cast on Turkish democracy" if its leader was barred from the November 3 polls at a time when Ankara is pushing for membership of the European Union.

The AK party said the earlier ruling cleared all obstacles on the way of Erdogan's bid to stand in the elections. Under Turkish electoral law, a candidate cannot run for office if he has a criminal record.

Less than two months before the polls, the 48-year-old Erdogan, who in the past denounced the strictly secular system of the mainly Muslim nation, is the strongest contender for the Premiership.

The final decision on his eligibility rests with the Higher Electoral Board, which will announce later this month which candidates are barred from running in the elections.

Erdogan served four months in jail in 1999 for sedition, a conviction which also carries a lifelong ban on political activities.

However, he made a political comeback last year at the helm of the AK on the grounds that a 1999 amnesty and other reforms had rendered the ban invalid.

Recent opinion polls suggest that the AK, an offshoot of a banned Islamic party, would come to power with about 25 percent of the vote, while the current governing parties would lose their seats in parliament.

Erdogan turned his back on his Islamic past and recast himself as a pro-Western conservative, but the makeover is a source of widespread suspicion in the country, where the army-led secular establishment has tirelessly cracked down on political Islam.

Following the court ruling Monday, the deputy chairman of the AK party told reporters he believes the electoral board will make the "right decision" on Erdogan, AFP reported.

"We do not have any hesitation regarding our chairman. We believe we will run in the elections under the leadership of our chairman and we will come to power," Abdullah Gul said.

"Otherwise, a shadow will be cast on Turkish democracy," he added.

The Turkish military, which has carried out three coups since the 1960s, led a harsh secular campaign against the country's first Islamic Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan in 1997 and forced him to resign.

Erdogan and most of his supporters were members of Erbakan's now banned party.

But AK says it learned from the past and vehemently rejects the Islamist label, presenting itself as a center-right movement.