The head of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court and ex-interim president Adly Mansour turned down a ‎request by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to join the parliament, ‎Mansour told reporters on Tuesday.

Mansour said he ‎made it clear that he prefers to maintain his position at the top of Egypt’s highest ‎court until the end of his term. ‎

Mansour, who served as interim president after the ouster of Islamist ‎president Mohamed Morsi in 3 July 2013, was nominated by many of the newly elected members of ‎parliament to be among the list of the 28 MPs the president is ‎constitutionally mandated to name. This would have been a step to elect him as the ‎parliament speaker during its first session, which is expected to be held on 10 ‎January 2016. ‎

El-Sisi met Mansour twice in the past few days, raising media speculations that the veteran judge would consider joining the House of Representatives. 

The newly elected parliament should pass all laws ratified under Mansour and ‎El-Sisi within 15 days of its first assembly.