The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) movement and other Egyptian opposition forces filed several lawsuits this week challenging the legitimacy of the incoming parliament.

The lawsuits named the president, the parliamentary speaker, the head of the Supreme Elections Commission (SEC) and the interior minister as defendants.

MB lawyer Sobhi Saleh cited four reasons for the lawsuit, including the fact that last week's parliamentary elections were unconstitutional; that the SEC lacked legitimacy; that the government tended to challenge Administrative Court rulings before other incompetent courts; and that the government had abused the powers vested to it.

Saleh said that the courts had ruled to invalidate 184 parliamentary seats, reducing the total number of legitimate seats to 242--eight seats short of the 250-seat quorum necessary to vote on proposed legislation.

He also questioned the impartiality of seven SEC members that had been directly appointed by President Hosni Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).

In related news, 680 NDP members in the Gharbiya governorate reportedly resigned from the party to protest the alleged rigging of the parliamentary polls. Gharbiya NDP Secretary Hamdi Abdel Kawy, however, denied he had received any resignations.

Translated from the Arabic Edition.