2023-07-13 18:36:21
Cairo, Egypt (CNN) — The dispute has renewed within the Wafd Party, which is considered one of the oldest Egyptian parties, over the party’s candidate for the upcoming Egyptian presidential elections, following canceling the meeting of the party’s supreme body scheduled for next Monday; To resolve the position of contesting the elections, and to call the General Assembly to choose the party’s candidate from among those who have expressed their desire to do so.
This comes following its president, Abd al-Sanad Yamama, had previously announced the approval of the party’s supreme body for his candidacy for the presidential elections, while a member of the body, Fouad Badrawi, who intends to run for the same position, insisted on its disapproval of this candidacy, calling for the need to implement the internal regulations that require the approval of the general assembly on party candidate.
The New Wafd Party is the largest and oldest of the liberal parties in Egypt, and it is headed by many Egyptian leaders, most notably Saad Zaghloul and Fouad Serageldin. The “Wafd” ranks third in terms of the number of members represented in the Egyptian Parliament, with a total of 26 seats.
Fouad Badrawi, a member of the Supreme Committee of the Wafd Party, said that the party’s leader canceled the meeting of the Supreme Committee scheduled for next Monday without setting a new date, for the second time in a row, adding that the meeting schedule of the committee included an item to determine the party’s position on the Egyptian presidential elections, and to present his candidacy to The Commission, to refer the matter to the General Assembly to select its candidate for the elections, in accordance with the internal regulations of the party.
And the head of the Wafd Party, Abdul Sanad Yamama, had previously decided, on June 24, to postpone the meeting of the Supreme Committee of the Wafd Party until following the Eid al-Adha holiday, following which he set next Monday as the date for the meeting.
Badrawi added, in exclusive statements to CNN in Arabic, that he sent two warnings by a reporter to the party’s president, Abdul Sanad Yamama, the first to invite the party’s supreme body, and the second to add an item to the meeting of the supreme body to discuss the party’s decision to run in the presidential elections, following up that the head of the Wafd Party did not include this. The item is in the commission’s meeting, and therefore the second warning came regarding the necessity of adhering to the decision.
Fouad Badrawi had sent the first warning, on June 26, to the head of the Wafd Party, Abdul Sanad Yamama, informing him of his desire to run in the upcoming Egyptian presidential elections, calling for a speedy meeting of the supreme body and the party’s general assembly to decide on running in the presidential elections, and choosing its candidate in accordance with Article 19 bis of the party bylaw.
Regarding his opinion on Amr Moussa, former Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, on the division within the Wafd Party, Badrawi commented, “Amr Moussa’s statements are consistent with the party’s bylaws and the articles regulating candidacy for the presidential elections, which obligate the need to respect legitimacy.”
Amr Moussa wrote, on his personal account, a tweet in which he said: “I liked the appeal of Mahmoud Abaza, the former head of the Wafd Party, to the Wafdists regarding candidacy for the upcoming presidential elections, as he demanded that the party’s institutions ensure compliance with the provisions of the regulations that regulate the nomination process and candidate selection … etc.. Respecting the regulations delegitimizes the candidacy, and the use of party funds in the electoral campaign in this case constitutes a crime of appropriation of public money, directed towards both the candidate and the institutions that allowed it.
Fouad Badrawi indicated that a number of members of the party’s supreme body withdrew signatures approving Abdul Sanad Yamama’s candidacy for the presidential elections, but he stressed the illegality of these signatures in deciding the party’s candidate for the elections, which requires a meeting of the party’s supreme body at the official headquarters to determine the position of candidacy for the elections, on The general assembly chooses the candidate, following the official ratification of the meeting of the supreme body, and these procedures did not occur during Yamama’s candidacy, which met with a number of members of the body outside the party’s headquarters.
Badrawi said that choosing him to run for the presidential elections as a representative of the Wafd Party is up to the General Assembly to determine, adding that running for elections is a matter guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution, and every candidate must work to ensure the integrity and freedom of elections in order to give voters the right to choose their candidate, noting that full judicial supervision over Presidential elections are guaranteed to be fair, in addition to freedom of and presentation of electoral programmes.
The Egyptian government is considering making a legislative amendment to the National Elections Authority Law to allow full judicial oversight of the upcoming presidential elections in 2024, under a directive from President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in response to a proposal by the National Dialogue Board of Trustees.
For his part, Dr. Ayman Mohseb, deputy head of the parliamentary committee of the Wafd Party in the House of Representatives, and a member of the party’s supreme body, said that Dr. The opposite is Fouad Badrawi, one of the historical figures of the delegation, but he ran for the elections late.
Mohaseb explained, in exclusive statements to CNN in Arabic, that the internal regulations of the Wafd Party require that the candidate for the presidential elections be decided through the General Assembly, but that Dr. Badrawi presented himself following the approval of the party’s supreme body.
Ayman Mohseb believes that the Wafd Party is the most suitable to compete in the presidential elections, as it is the most organized, the largest in terms of members, and the most widespread at the level of the Republic, which enables it to compete for the position.
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