Wafd party to nominate candidate for Egypt’s 2022 Presidential election

CAIRO – 31 March 2018: Al-Wafd party will nominate one of its member for Egypt’s 2022 presidential election, newly-elected chairperson Bahaaeddin Abu Shoka said on Friday evening after winning in the party’s presidency election.

“The supreme body of the Wafd Party took a binding decision by nominating a candidate in the presidential election in 2022,” Parliamentarian Sulaiman Wahdan, House of Representatives speaker deputy, told CBC Extra channel on Friday evening, following the press conference.

“Any political party has to have a candidate to seek power,” he said.

The party’s decision came following a state of division among the party members during the 2018 presidential election. On January 25, some members of al-Wafd party named the former chairperson El Sayyid el-Badawi for the 2018 presidential election, which ended last week with President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi winning.

However, two days after Badawi’s announcement of his nomination, the party’ Supreme Committee held a meeting on January 27, announcing its rejection to Badawi’s nomination and backed President Sisi.

Two weeks ago, defeated al-Ghad party’s nominee Moussa Moustafa Moussa, who got about 3 percent of the voters as per the preliminary results, held a press conference and announced that his nomination for this year’s election is a “positive step” and will encourage other parties to nominate their candidates for the presidency. He hoped that other parties nominate candidates in the upcoming presidential election.

Moussa, himself, is keeping his eye on the 2022 presidential election; he told “al-Mowagha” talk show on CBC Extra channel on Thursday that his bid in the 2018 election proved that he has the qualifications to run for the 2022 election.

Al-Wafd and Al-Ghad parties had nominated their candidates in the 2018 presidential election after Sisi’s other contenders dropped and withdrew from the presidency bid. Lawyer Khaled Ali and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq and Parliamentarian Mortada Mansour withdrew from the election, and after, former military chief of staff Sami Anan was dropped over charges of “forgery”.

Parties’ nominations prevented the presidential election from turning into a presidential referendum on granting Sisi another term in the presidency.

Multi-party candidacy for the presidential election was first applied in Egypt since 2005, when former President Hosni Mubarak conducted amendments to the constitution. During 2005, Mubarak won the election when he amassed more than 88 percent against former al-Ghad chairperson Ayman Nour and former chairperson of al-Wafd party Numaan Gomaa.

The official results of the 2018 presidential election is scheduled to be announced by the National Election Authority (NEA) on Monday. President Sisi has secured a second four-year term in presidency via obtaining about 92 percent of votes.

According to Egypt’s 2014 Constitution, the president shall run only once for a second term of presidency. However, political analyst and head of Bibliotheca Alexandria Director Mustafa El-Feki told “Happens in Egypt” talk show on MBC Masr channel that two terms in presidency are not enough and should be extended.