CAIRO - A senior ruling party official dismissed the plans for forming an alternative legislature, which was announced last week by 20 opposition lawmakers defeated in the November legislative polls, as illegal and illegitimate.
Mufied Shehab, the Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and member of the National Democratic Party (NDP), said that the plan was illegal and not serious.
"I wish the defeated candidates were serious enough to sit down and discuss and review the mistakes they had made before and after the elections rather blaming the NDP, or planning to form their own rogue legislature," Shehab told the national TV.
The defeated candidates, Shehab continued, should have acknowledged their own mistakes as well as appraising the positive and negative aspects of the November 28 and December 5 parliamentary elections.
He said that the elections were largely legal despite a few irregularities. However, Shehab said he regretted the candidates, who tried to undermine the will of the electorate through the use of money, violence and terrorism.
He urged Egyptians to look forward to the present Parliament to advance democracy in their country.
