CAIRO - More than 100 former MPs, who failed to maintain their seats in the Parliament due to alleged rigging of vote, will hold a symbolic protest outside the State Council Court Monday as the 518-strong legislature holds its maiden session.
The former MPs said Saturday they would set up a parallel parliament that will include representatives of all political blocs as well as public figures in Egypt.
"Around 118 former MPs will take part in, the sit-in, which is called for by Kefaya (Enough) opposition group. They will raise the slogan 'Illegitimate Parliament'," said Moustafa Bakri, a former inpendent MP who lost his seat to a Cabinet minister in the recent elections.
Bakri was speaking in a conference, attended by former deputies from the Al-Wafd, the banned Muslim Brotherhood and independent parliamentarians inside the premises of the opposition Democratic Front party, which boycotted the elections.
"We are studying all the possible ways to show the illegitimacy of this Parliament depending of the court rulings and the rigging, which marred the vote," said Alaa Abdel Moniem, a former Wafd MP.
Abdel Moniem added that a legal panel had been formed to “lead the battle in courts against this fake parliament”.
Hamdin Sabahi, a potential presidential candidate and a failed MP who pulled out of the election race at midday, called on all political groups to hold a conference to draw guidelines for a reform project through establishing a national front.
"There should be group work in order to reform this country," Sabahi said.
An electronic campaign was also set up calling on the European and the Euro-Mediterranean parliaments not to deal with the new legislature. The campaign is led by Brotherhood figure.
