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Internal spat threatens Egypt’s oldest political party

The Higher Committee of Al-Wafd Party decided to hold early elections for the party leadership, following an internal dispute over the allocation of the party’s seats in the National List of Egypt running in the country's upcoming parliamentary elections.
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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.

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