Parliament will discuss Tuesday a request filed by Muslim Brotherhood MP Mahmoud Ashmawi into allegations that state security and intelligence bodies "pressured" low-ranking police officers and their families into signing the recommendations required for Omar Suleiman to become an official presidential candidate.
Suleiman's bid for president was rejected by the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission because he failed to secure sufficient recommendations from Assiut governorate and other errors.
The commission stated that a presidential candidate must obtain a total of 30,000 popular recommendations from at least 15 governorates, with a minimum of one thousand recommendations from each. The commission stated that Suleiman gathered 969 recommendations in Assiut, 31 short of the required total.
Suleiman's bid was met with strong criticism, especially from the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups, who staged a mass rally in Tahrir Square Friday to protest his candidacy and those of other former regime figures.
Parliament passed a "disfranchisement law" on Thursday banning key Mubarak regime figures from politics for 10 years.
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