The first session of Egypt's parliament continued after MP Mortada Mansour capitulated to the demands of angry parliamentarians that he recite the oath without criticising the 25 January revolution that ousted president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Acting speaker Bahaa Abu-Shoqa had threatened to suspend the first session after Mansour refused to repeat the oath, standing by his initial version of the oath in which he strayed from the official text, stirring a raucous among members who shouted him down.

The controversial Mansour had earlier gone off script by adding that he does not consider the January 25 uprising a revolution.

Mansour swore that he would respect the “articles of the constitution,” not the “constitution [per se].” He had earlier explained to the media that he rejected the constitution's preface, which pays tribute to both the 25 January 2011 revolution and the 30 June 2013 revolution that ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

“25 January was an uprising, not a revolution,” Mansour stated.

Earlier in the day, Egyptian Arabic newspaper El-Masry El-Youm videotaped Mansour heading from his house to the parliament’s headquarters in Downtown Cairo, where he revealed his intention to change the oath while swearing in.