Wafd Party Chairman Sayyed el-Badawi announced on Monday the establishment of a commission to formulate the Egyptian opposition’s demands and send them to President Mubarak.
Speaking at a press conference at the Wafd Party headquarters after meeting with a delegation from the National Association for Change (NAC), el-Badawi said that participants in the meeting had discussed how to ensure fairness and transparency in the upcoming People’s Assembly elections in November.
He stressed that the most effective guarantee would be a political bill of rights issued by President Hosni Mubarak through an executive order.
The chairman also said that an election boycott was unlikely and called on the opposition parties to prepare for participation.
NAC Coordinator Hassan Nafaa, for his part, affirmed that his delegation came to an agreement with the Wafd leadership on establishing a commission to demand effective guarantees for the parliamentary elections. According to Nafaa, the commission will be composed of representatives from various opposition factions in Egypt.
Democratic Front Party Chairman Osama el-Ghazali Harb, who was part of the NAC delegation, suggested that the Wafd party has not yet come to a final decision about whether it would participate in the elections, noting that its decision hinged on the regime’s response to demands for fair elections.
Harb added that his party has adopted the same position, saying that without such guarantees they would not participate.
Meanwhile, Harb affirmed that the Democratic Front Party would remain part of the Coalition of Parties for Change, which includes the Wafd, Tagammu and Nasserist parties. Mohamed Mustafa, a Wafd deputy in the People’s Assembly, explained that the Wafd’s status in the coalition following a recent dispute would be reviewed by the party’s Executive Council, which would make a final decision in the matter.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
