Loyalists to former Egyptian president Hosny Mubarak have threatened to occupy parts of Egypt if the country's military rulers barred them from political life, the independent newspaper Al Shoruq reported Wednesday.
Angry members from Mubarak's now-disbanded National Democractic Party are to meet late Wednesday in the southern Egyptian city of Qena to consider how to respond to the reported ban from the ruling military council, DPA reported.
At a meeting with opposition politicians on Saturday, the military council said it was considering the possibility of issuing a law to bar leaders in Mubarak's party from getting engaged in politics for a certain period of time.
"Around 15,000 people will attend the rally (in Qena) and will sign a petition to the military council, expressing opposition to the planned ban," said Salah Hasaballah, the head of the Egyptian Citizen, a political party believed to comprise Mubarak's loyalists.
"If the military council bowed to pressure from a few (opposition) politicians and decreed the ban, it has to bear the consequences," he told the paper.