Sisi’s intervention in internal Wafd dispute raises questions
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi intervened in the internal dispute among Wafd Party members, which stirred criticism as to the extent of the president’s role in partisan life.
CAIRO — The Egyptian public and the country’s politicians have many questions concerning the significance of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s intervention to solve the internal conflict among leaders of the nationalist Wafd Party, one of the oldest Egyptian political parties founded by Saad Zaghloul in 1918.
Conflicts within Wafd escalated in April 2015 following a call from a number of its leaders to withdraw confidence from party chairman El-Sayed el-Badawi and hold new elections for the party. Badawi responded to the call May 1 by suspending the membership of party leaders opposing him.
Opponents attributed their call to withdraw confidence from Badawi to a number of reasons, including the deterioration of the political and financial situation within the party, Badawi’s monopolization of the decision-making process and talks about his squandering of the party’s moneys and bank deposits. There are also undisclosed reasons relating to certain parliamentary elections alliances, conflicts among the party’s leaders and the interference of various political sides into the party’s internal affairs.
Sisi met with parties to the conflict within the party, to raise the issue of the president’s partisan backer in parliament, and if the Wafd would constitute this backer that is stipulated by a number of articles in the new Egyptian Constitution. Article 146 of the constitution states, “The president of the republic shall assign a prime minister to form a government and introduce his/her program to the parliaments. If his government does not win the confidence of the majority of parliament members within 30 days at most, the president shall appoint a prime minister who is nominated by the party or the coalition that holds the majority or the highest number of seats in parliament. If the government of such prime minister fails to win the confidence of the majority of parliament members within 60 days, the parliament shall be deemed dissolved, and the president of the republic shall call for the election of a new parliament.”
