The Nour Party plans to hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to elect new leadership after several of its top members broke off to form their own party.
Party chief Emad Abdel Ghafour has resigned, along with other key leaders, to form the Watan Party and join an electoral alliance with controversial Salafi preacher Hazem Salah Abu Ismail.
The Salafi-oriented Nour Party is the nation's second largest Islamist political party after the Muslim Brotherhood. Both its acting head Mostafa Khalifa and Younis Makhyoun, one of its senior members, are competing for Ghafour's former post. Party Secretary General Galal al-Morra was also expected to be a contender, but recently announced he would not run in the internal elections.
The Nour Party General Assembly is also expected to choose a new secretary and members of its governing council.
Party member Salah Abdel Mabod told state-run news agency MENA that there are efforts within the party to reach a consensus on supporting Younis Makhyoun for party president. In Abdel Mabod's opinion, Makhyoun is favored because he is a member of the Salafi Dawah and the Constituent Assembly, which drafted the new Constitution.
The split among party leadership has dealt a major blow to the party ahead of upcoming elections for the lower house of Parliament.
