Wafd's Shadow Cabinet to back government: Abu Shoka

CAIRO – 17 December 2018: President of the nationalist liberal New Wafd Party said that the Shadow Cabinet the party is planning to form is not meant to oppose the government or the state.

Bahaa el-Din Abu Shoka, the party's president, affirmed that Wafd's Shadow Cabinet will support the state and the current government headed by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly.

The party has formed several shadow cabinets during the rule of former President Hosni Mubarak and the two terms of incumbent President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.
A shadow cabinet is an alternative cabinet usually formed of opposition figures, tasked with inspecting policies of the state's government and introducing an alternative program when required.

Watch Salah Hafez, head of Wafd's former Shadow Cabinet during the first term of President Sisi, speaking about the idea of establishing an alternative cabinet

Abu Shoka said that names will be discussed with the Supreme Committee of the party to form a Shadow Cabinet, which was announced on Sunday, adding that the party is willing to choose the most efficient leadership for the alternative cabinet.

In an interview with Egypt Today, Abu Shoka said that the Cabinet will be completely formed within a few days after settling on its members. He pointed out that the Cabinet will be formed of various committees like those in the House of Representatives to work on discussing issues that concern citizens, and help the party's Parliament members in preparing the necessary legislation to be submitted to the House.

Abu Shoka affirmed that Wafd Party currently aims at supporting citizens through the introduction of initiatives that will be help deal with the issues that concern the citizens. He added that the Wafd supports the state to complete the construction map initiated by President Sisi and other institutions in the country.

Election crisis

Problems continued to emerge in the New Wafd Party even after the new leader of the party took post in March 2018. Just before the party’s former Chairperson Al-Sayed al-Badawi's term ended, Egyptian media could spot numerous disputes inside the party.

Only a 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 result.

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

The losing leaders decided to postpone their press conference that was scheduled for November 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 of respect and appreciation of the history of the Wafd Party.

Responding to attempts to "obstruct the party's path," Abu Shoka 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, Abu Shoka said that there is "a very few" people who ran in the election but did not succeed; they are trying to show there are splits within the party which he said is not the real situation.