CAIRO:A group from opposition Al-Wafd party announced Sunday the establishment of a new current separate from the party, causing its division into three factions.
In commemoration of the death of party founder Saad Zaghloul Sunday, the group has announced the “Third Current of al-Wafd,” calling for reforming the party before the upcoming parliamentary elections, according to a statement they issued.
Since four months, the party has experienced problems when seven of its members dissented from it. They announced in August a new party called “Reform”.
The founders of Third Current of al-Wafd added in their statement that the crisis between al-Wafd leader Al Sayd Al Badawy and the Reform Party is “personal”, saying “we found that the conflict has flared up between two parties, each forcedly seeks for power …each party is to lay the charges at his opponents to extend they exchanged accusations of working for foreign agenda and for fronts outside al-Wafd.”
Reform Party
Protesting Badawy’s leadership in al-Wafd, the seven dissenters and their followers from within al-Wafd announced Aug. 15 the establishment of “Reform Party.”
They accused Badawy of his failure to run the party and wasting its money to extend the financial crisis could lead to suspension of publishing al-Wafd newspaper, al-Ahram reported Aug. 16.
They also took a new bureau, near al-Wafd party headquarter in Giza’s Dokki. The party has announced its intention to run for parliamentary elections as part of a big coalition.
Outside the new bureau, the new party members protested and called for Badawy’s ouster. His second and last four-year term of presidency of al-Wafd is due to end in three years.
The Wafd Party is Egypt’s oldest liberal political party. Established in 1919, it was the leading party before the 1952 Revolution which canceled the royal political regime and declared the Republic.