El-Sayyed el-Badawi, chief of Wafd Party, has said that the upcoming period will require great efforts to maintain the Wafd’s status as an historically important party with deep political roots among all segments of Egypt’s population.
In his meeting on Friday with Wafd veterans in Port Said, el-Badawi said he expects the party to win 20 seats in the People’s Assembly, vowing that the party will field strong candidates in the November elections. “The Wafd Party will recoup its historical status within three months,” said the party chief. The Wafd was established in th early twentieth century under British occupation, after which it rose to become Egypt’s leading nationalist party.
El-Badawi also dispelled rumors that his party is negotiating a deal with the government, saying, “There are no deals with the regime for parliamentary seats.”
In response to a party member’s warning that the government will rig elections as it did in last month’s Shura Council vote, el-Badawi said “the Wafd is still paying the price for not running in elections during the 1990s. What happened with Shura Council elections will not take place in parliamentary elections.”
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
