New dispute inside Egypt's liberal nationalist Wafd party

CAIRO – 20 October 2018: Problems continued to emerge in the New Wafd Party even after the new leader of the party took post on March this year. Since the last days for the term of the party’s former Chairperson Al-Sayed al-Badawi, Egyptian media could spot numerous disputes inside the party.

Only few days after a high-level election took place inside Egypt's 40-year old New Wafd, candidates who lost ballots announced filing grievances to the chairman of the party over the election results.

On November 11, 55 members won the party's "supreme authority elections".

The losing leaders decided to postpone their press conference scheduled for Monday, Nov. 19 to enable the party leader to receive the grievance from the court after he refused to receive it from the party secretariat.

The complaining leaders of the party own many documents proving the invalidity of the election result due to a number of violations that took place during the election process, said Yasser Qora, a member of the party's supreme authority and one of the candidates complaining about the election result.

The party decided to use all available means to convey grievance to the party leader, Qora said, adding that this is a sign ofrespect and appreciation of the history of the Wafd Party.

"Attempts aiming to obstruct the party's path"

Wafd's leader Bahaa al-Din Abo Shoka, on the other hand, said that attempts to distort the image of the party's supreme authority election is unacceptable, pointing out that the elections ran under the full supervision of the National Council for Human Rights.

In a press statement, he affirmed the transparency of the sorting process and the announcement of the final result which he said were carriedout before all candidates or their representatives,assertingthatEgyptian and Arab media also followed up on the process.

AboShoka said that there is "a very few"people who ran in the election but did not succeed; theyare trying to show there are splits within the party which he said is not the real situation.

He added that their attempts aim at obstructing the path of the party, and distorting the democratic image ofthe election.He added that the early election for the party's supreme authority came at the request of 37 members froma total of 42 during a meeting of the supreme authority on October 10.

The head of the Wafd Party said that recent attempts to issue illegitimate statements from inside the party's headquarters were "illegal" and "incompatible" with the law and regulations.

Wafd is believed to be Egypt’s oldest national liberal party and always played a significant role in the Egyptian political scene. It is sometimes called “the New Wafd Party” because it is the extension of the original one which was dismantled after the 1952 Revolution. The New Wafd was established in 1978.

Wafd’s history dates back to the beginning of party life under the monarchy, making it the oldest among existing Egyptian political parties.