Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 28 Sep. - 4 Oct. 2000 Issue No. 501
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Renewal for old glory's sake

Wafd Party members are optimistic about the coming parliamentary elections. The largest legal opposition party hopes to win as many as 100 seats out of 444 seats up for grabs. Political analysts may consider this a far-fetched goal, but Wafdists believe it is within reach. The party held six seats in the outgoing People's Assembly.

About 500 Wafd members had expressed a wish to contest the elections, and 273 of them were chosen by the party leadership as its official candidates. "Those who were not chosen were neither angry nor demoralised because we share a common goal -- a large representation in the new parliament," said Ibrahim Dessouqi Abaza, the party's assistant secretary-general. "There is tremendous enthusiasm in party ranks. We are seeking to win about one-fourth of parliamentary seats. It is time that the Wafd regained its [former] glory."

Despite this confidence, the party was only ready with the complete list of its candidates on Monday -- the final day for the registration of nominations. The list will be published by the Wafd newspaper as late as today. "This is because many people wanted to be included on our list," said Abaza. Observers believe the delay was due to the great effort made in gathering as many candidates as possible in a demonstration of party muscle.

The 273 candidates will run in 173 constituencies in all 26 governorates; 158 are running as professionals and 114 as workers and farmers. The party has always advocated the principles of national unity and women's rights, but the list included a meagre 12 Copts and eight women. The list is the largest to date, compared to previous ones, and includes people from different segments of society.

It does not include Yassin Serageddin, the younger brother of the late chairman Fouad Serageddin. Yassin, 78, had been the Wafd minority leader in all outgoing parliaments since the party's comeback in 1984. He will not contest the elections this time because "my poor health does not allow it and, also, we should make way for the younger people," he said.

Saad Zaghloul

Serageddin was not always in tandem with other Wafdist MPs. He was continuously blamed for showing only token opposition to the government. In the last People's Assembly, the party may not have acted as a strong opposition, yet it made its presence felt. They opposed the re-nomination of Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour and walked out of the re-nomination session. They also expressed strong opposition to a new personal status law, although they initially called for it.

"The performance of the Wafd Party in the last parliament was below expectations," said Mustafa El-Sayed, a professor of political science. "They did not take consistent positions. As a liberal party, they were in favour of liberal economic policies but opposed civil liberties," he said. According to El-Sayed, "strangely enough, they were against the personal status law and against the publication of Haydar Haydar's novel A Banquet for Seaweed."

Wahid Abdel-Meguid, an expert at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, agreed that the party's performance in the last parliament was weak. "It did not match its status as the largest opposition party," he said. But according to Abdel-Meguid this was part of "the weakness of parliament's overall performance." Abdel-Meguid's name was included in the party's initial list of candidates but removed from the final and complete list. Abdel-Meguid affirmed that he was not contesting the elections. "It was a hasty announcement to make because I had not given the party leadership my final word. But I may run in the next election, not this one," explained Abdel-Meguid.

The Wafd Party had often won the largest number of seats of all opposition parties, but still its representation was limited. In the 1984 parliamentary elections, the Wafd allied itself with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to the disappointment of many Coptic Wafd members. The Wafd and Brotherhood managed together to gain 57 seats, their largest representation to date. In the 1987 elections, the Wafd lost its position as the leading opposition force in parliament to a Labour-Brotherhood alliance, but was able to win 35 seats. The Wafd, along with other opposition parties, with the exception of the leftist Tagammu, boycotted the 1990 elections. In the 1995 elections, the Wafd regained its position as the largest representative of the opposition, although it only gained six seats.

FAIRLY SMOOTH TRANSITION: A major blow to the Wafd Party was the death of Fouad Serageddin on 9 August. After all, he had held in his hands all party strings. Moreover, he belonged to the pre-revolution Wafd and staged the party's comeback in 1978 and again in 1984. Many observers assumed that with his death two months before the parliamentary elections, the Wafd would be plagued with in-fighting and fail to be ready for the elections. But "we came out of it as united and strong as ever before," said Abaza, who had nominated himself for the post of party chairman but later withdrew.

But the party did face some squabbling until No'man Gomaa was elected chairman. "This is part of a democratic process; competition is bound to happen but it does not mean splits," said Wagih Abaza, a Wafd member.

Nevertheless, there were still ugly scenes. Numerous party members exchanged accusations and counter-accusations. Two lawsuits were filed by Medhat Khafagi, a surgeon who nominated himself for the post of chairman, contesting the legality of the elections. Both cases were thrown out by courts.

After the results were announced, many members breathed a sigh of relief because the transition of power took place in a "smooth and democratic atmosphere." They all agreed that their attention should be devoted to the coming parliamentary elections.

Gomaa, who previously served as first deputy chairman, ran against three other candidates and easily won 78.25 per cent of valid votes. His rivals were Fouad Badrawi, the grandson of Fouad Serageddin, Medhat Khafagi, and Abdel-Mohsen Hammouda, a professor of engineering.

To the surprise of many, Yassin Serageddin did not run for chairman. Before and after the death of his brother, Yassin Serageddin has often declared that he should be the successor, often disparaging Gomaa in the process. He did not seek the post because "I should have been elected uncontested."

More or less, order has prevailed in party ranks. But about two weeks ago, Gomaa dismissed Said Abdel-Khaleq, co-editor-in-chief of the party's mouthpiece. Supporting Gomaa in the elections for chairman, Abdel-Khaleq apparently believed that Gomaa would tolerate any and all his actions. But Gomaa did not. Abdel-Khaleq verbally attacked the deputy chief editor for financial affairs, Salib Boutros, in Gomaa's presence. In a show of strength, Gomaa dismissed Abdel-Khaleq.

After Gomaa became chairman, new members joined the party and others who had been dismissed came back. For example, Mona El-Qorashi, who was dismissed by Fouad Serageddin because she ran in the 1995 parliamentary elections against his will, came back and was included in the party's list of candidates. Milad Hanna, a construction engineer and a housing expert, joined the party for the first time.

Since the 1995 elections, a number of Wafd members were either dismissed or resigned. The late Fouad Serageddin administered the party with an iron grip. Most of those dismissed had dared to disagree with him, and others for accusing the party of flirting with the government and becoming less of an opposition party.

THE COMEBACK: After a law governing the formation of new parties was passed in 1977, the Wafd staged a comeback and obtained a licence from the Political Parties Committee in February 1978. This was only possible because the Wafd modified its pre-revolution platform to conform with the new law. The party was officially named the "New Wafd," but the term "new" was later dropped by Fouad Serageddin to make a point that it was a continuation of the pre-1952 revolution Wafd Party.

The late President Anwar El-Sadat, targeting Fouad Serageddin, issued a decree prohibiting those who had held high positions before the revolution from political party membership. Serageddin was the Wafd Party's secretary-general at the time of the party's dissolution in 1952. Reacting to Sadat's decree, the Wafd decided to "freeze" its activities. Worse, Serageddin was imprisoned, along with nearly 1,000 political, religious and intellectual figures from across the political spectrum, in September 1981, one month before Sadat's assassination.

Following his release by President Hosni Mubarak in 1982, Serageddin attempted to revive the party, but the Political Parties Committee, a government-controlled body in charge of licensing political parties, demanded that the Wafd apply for a new licence. The Wafd took the case to the Administrative Court which ruled in its favour in October 1983, making it possible for it to contest elections the following year.

Since its establishment by Saad Zaghlul in 1919 to lead the struggle for Egypt's liberation from British domination, the Wafd struggled to curtail the powers of the monarchy, advocated democracy and free enterprise and placed an emphasis on Muslim-Christian unity. The Wafd, meaning delegation, was named after the Egyptian delegation, led by Zaghlul, that travelled to Paris to plead Egypt's case for independence before the 1919 Versailles conference that shaped a new world order following the end of World War I. The Wafd gained legitimacy because Zaghlul managed to collect thousands of signatures on petitions from all over Egypt, telling the British that he was the representative of the Egyptian people. Britain reacted by sending Zaghlul and some of his colleagues into exile in Malta. This triggered the 1919 Revolution.

Until the 1952 Revolution, the Wafd swept to one massive parliamentary election victory after another. It was suppressed along with other opposition parties for a quarter of a century by post-revolutionary governments.

THE PLATFORM: The party's platform for the forthcoming elections remains essentially the same as previous ones.

As always, political reform is the cornerstone of the Wafd's programme. The party calls for the amendment of the constitution and for a new law regulating the exercise of political rights to guarantee clean parliamentary elections. As an advocate of human rights, it calls for the encouragement of women and all citizens, regardless of their religion, to participate in political activity. The Wafd calls for the removal of all restrictions on press freedom and the establishment of political parties, greater civil liberties and a strict separation of authorities.

The party champions a market economy, demanding that private enterprise should be encouraged and that restrictions on investments be lifted. But it is against haphazard privatisation, and for national and strategic projects remaining in the public sector. The privatisation of economic organisations should be carefully monitored so that they may not fall in the hands of people likely to harm national interests. The party also demands that unemployment be fought and wages linked to prices.

The party demands that irresponsible spending on unstudied projects should come to a halt and that the money should instead be channelled to education, housing, providing medicine to the poor, and improving pensions.

On foreign policy, the party advocates Arab unity and backs the government's efforts to banish weapons of mass destruction from the Middle East and to support the Palestinians' right to self-determination and independent statehood.

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Related stories:
Collective sigh of relief 7 - 13 September 2000
The last pasha 17 - 23 August 2000
Under the liberal banner 19 - 25 October 1995
See also The 1995 elections

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