Wafd Party nears walkout from election list

The 96-year-old Wafd Party is poised to withdraw from an electoral list deemed to have the best chances for a parliamentary election success, a member of the party’s supreme board said, two days after the elections were postponed indefinitely over the unconstitutionality of its regulations.
 
Abdel Alim Dawood told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the party is nearing withdrawal from “For the Love of Egypt”, an electoral alliance led by retired intelligence general Sameh Seif al-Yazal.
 
The imminent withdrawal is “beneficial to review the party’s positions and for it to form its own lists,” Dawood said.
 
Wafd and FLE had announced a merge a few weeks ago.
 
Dawood said the decision will be declared within days, adding that names representing the Wafd Party in FLE’s list had nothing to do with the party and were instead “security pressures”, as he put it.
 
Dawood said his party enjoys a considerable number of members and offices, which enables it to run in the elections away from “sham lists”.
 
Many politicians have decried what they viewed as the state’s support for the FLE list, allegations the government and presidency denied, reiterating neutrality to all competitors.
 
Of the House of Representatives seats, 120 were scheduled to be filled by electoral lists, while 440 were meant to be sought individually.