President of the Wafd Party al-Sayed al-Badawi said his party may form an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood in the upcoming parliamentary elections if the party’s general assembly agrees.
Badawi said to Al-Masry A-Youm that the relationship between the Wafd Party and the Muslim Brotherhood is historic, and his party never dealt with the Brotherhood as a banned group. He said that when Safwat al-Sherif, former secretary general of the dissolved National Democratic Party, asked the Wafd to file a report with the attorney general to disqualify the Brotherhood’s parliamentary elections candidates for using religious slogans, the party refused.
Meanwhile, Essam Erian, official spokesperson for the Brotherhood, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that it is still too early to decide on an alliance with the Wafd Party, adding that the Brotherhood has urged all political powers to have a unified list of candidates in the election. Consultations are still ongoing, he said.
At a public conference held in Aswan on Thursday, meanwhile, Badawi said sectarian violence threatens Egypt’s stability and is a tool used by enemies inside and outside Egypt to make the people think the ousted regime was better.
He said foreign intervention is likely if sectarian incidents continue, adding that the current government is responsible for recent violence in Qena because it did not act early to address the problems that arose when a new governor was appointed.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
