Wafd Party President al-Sayed al-Badawy and Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsy have decided that their respective parties will run in parliamentary elections on two separate and competing lists, according to Wafd sources. The news was leaked following a meeting between the two party heads on Tuesday.
The decision is to be officially announced during a Democratic Coalition meeting scheduled for Saturday at the headquarters of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political party associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Wafd Party's final decision will be announced after its official party meetings have been held, said the sources.
Wahid Abdul Magid, president the electoral coordinating committee, said that Wafd members are insisting that the proportion of seats for which they compete should be the same as that of the Freedom and Justice Party, which amounts to between 40 and 42 percent.
However, it would be very difficult for the Wafd to compete for that number of seats while convincing the rest of the parties from the Democratic Coalition to remain in the coalition. The coalition’s parties feel that the proportion of seats for which the Wafd competes should not exceed 25 percent.
A meeting to decide the Wafd Party’s final position on whether it should enter elections on the united list was originally intended for Tuesday, but Badawy was suffering from ill health, and so was prevented from attending the meeting.
The Wafd Party caused uproar a few days ago when it announced it would enter parliamentary elections on a separate list, in competition with the Democratic Coalition.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
