Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mofid Shehab criticized those forecasting chaos in Egypt and dismissed the predictions as erroneous. “Such people do not tell the truth, and have an undeclared reason for not doing so,” said Shehab in an interview with Russia Today's Amal al-Hennawy. “All state authorities, parliamentary, executive, or legislative, are functioning regularly,” the minister said. Shehab said the harshness of recent attacks on the government are evidence of the regime's strength and stability. He described Egyptian society as more open and stable, and accused independent papers of creating rumors and relying on exaggerations for the sake of publicity. The minister also said he believed international monitoring of elections would represent an interference in the country's domestic affairs and an encroachment upon Egypt's sovereignty. He cited legal and constitutional guarantees for a fair election process, including the monitoring of elections by civil society institutions. Commenting on former UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei's demands for political reform, Shehab said: ”Those who call for amending the Constitution should first respect it. It is a shame when someone asserts that he does not recognize the Constitution.” Shehab admitted the difficulty posed by conditions set for independent presidential candidates, but said they were "justified” due to the sensitivity of the post, which requires vast political and economic expertise. He also called uopn the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition movement, to respect the Constitution and principles of citizenship. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
