Wafd leader El-Sayed El-Badawi lambasting ruling party at a press conference 29 November
The Wafd party is considering withdrawal from the parliamentary elections, accusing the National Democratic Party's (NDP) of "bullying, violence, bribery and votes buying', declared Sayed El-Badawi, the leader of the party, in a press conference held yesterday.
“Tribalism, rigging, and buying votes were the main theme of this elections,” Essam Shiha, a member of the Wafd party's supreme body, told Ahram Online. “The party is boiling over with rage,” he added.
Out of 222 candidates, only two Wafd Party candidates won in the first round and 13 are on the run-off list.
The two wining candidates are Safir Nour, from the Dokki constituency, and Mosaad el-Meligy from Port Said's Arab Dawahy Ganoub constituency.
Party officials expressed shock and dismay at what they claimed were changes in the results. On elections' night the party was told that their candidates Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour, Mona Makram Ebied and Omran Megahed had won, and then the opposite was anounced.
Abdel-Nour, the party's secretary general, running for Sohag's Bandar Gerga constituency, told Ahram Online "Although the Egyptian security guards have done their job, the head of the electoral committee has disregarded 22 voting boxes, which resulted in this failure."
El-Badawi described the High Elections Commitee as "window dressing." He asked that they "stop announcing the names of the winners till they investigate the complaints that have been submitted first."
"These violations could result in subverting the whole electoral process," El-Badawi said.
Although critics in local media anticipated a deal between the Wafd party and the NDP to defeat the Muslim Brotherhood, the results surprised everyone. "It is a pity that [these reporters] have talked about a deal between our party and the NDP, those writers are more dangerous to democracy than vote rigging," stated El-Badawi.
The Wafd party participated in this year's elections with 222 candidates--their largest number of contenders in recent memory.
The Wafd has announced that its candidates competing in the run-off elections will be Mageda El-Nowish (Ismalia constituency), Taher Abou-Zaid (Shubra constituency), Nafie Heikal (El-Saft constituency, Helwan), Ashraf Abul-Eid (Gamalia constituency, Dakahlia), Farouk Hamdallah (Qena constituency), Hosni Hafez (Alexandria constituency), Ezzat Saroura (Suez constituency), Ramy Lakah (Shoubra constituency), Salah El-Saiegh (Ismalia constituency), Salah Abdel Maqsoud (El-Sharkia constituency), Mustafa El-Maharli (Atmeeda constituency, Daqahlia), Foad el-Badrawi (Nebrawehi constituency, Daqahlia) and Mohamed El-Malki (El-Gamalia constituency).
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