On Friday Wafd party members, led by veteran party leaders held a news conference calling on a vote of no-confidence from the party’s chairman, Al Sayd Al Badawy.
They claim that Badawy is trying to get rid of them over his decision to hold a general assembly meeting in order to run the supreme committee’s membership elections on May 15th after changing the party’s bylaws by reducing the number of its members. They believe that this move aims to weaken the electoral bloc.
Thus, Badrawry has vowed to resort to judiciary. “We will file a law suit to cancel the upcoming general assembly meeting, Badawy is calling for it in order to get rid of the reformists,” he told Youm 7 Monday.
“The right of resorting to the judiciary is guaranteed for all, and eventually its final word will be implemented,” Badawy said.
“I hope that we can resolve our issues inside the house, other than fighting publicly and speaking to media,” he added.
The Wafd Party is Egypt’s oldest liberal political party. Established in 1919, it was the leading party before the 1952 Revolution which canceled the royal political regime and declared the Republic.
In the past years, however, it has made a number of decisions that have been unpopular; it allied with the Muslim Brotherhood group in parliamentary elections held in 1987. In 2006, Wafd Party Chairman Noaman Gomma ordered the closure of the party’s daily paper, as some members used its premises to hold a sit-in, for protesting his refusal to step down following a decree issued by the party’s supreme committee.
The party re-allied with the group in Egypt’s post-January 25 Revolution parliamentary elections. Weeks before the elections, however, they broke the alliance, and the party gained 22 seats while the Muslim Brotherhood gained 222 seats.
