The congruence class of an idempotent in a regular semigroup (Q1174275)

Let \(S\) be a regular semigroup and \(\rho\) a congruence on \(S\). For any idempotent \(e\in S\) the class \([e]_ \rho\) is a subsemigroup. G. M. S. Gomes raised the question: is \([e]_ \rho\) necessarily regular? In the paper it is shown that for inverse semigroups and completely regular semigroups the answer is affirmative, but negative for orthodox semigroups.