CAIRO — The Higher Committee of Al-Wafd Party (one of the oldest Egyptian parties) decided Sept. 19 to hold early elections for the party’s leadership within a month.
The decision comes a few days after disputes emerged with party leader Bahaa Abu Shoka over his decision to participate in the National Unified List for Egypt — which is running for the Egyptian parliamentary elections (due Oct. 21 and 25) — despite the opposition of some of his party members over the quota of seats allocated to Al-Wafd in the list. The party was allocated 19 seats out of a total of 284 in the National Unified List for Egypt — i.e., half of the 568 total number of seats in parliament. The Unified List includes 12 political parties that support Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.