El-Sayed El-Badawi, head of Egypt's Wafd party, denounced all those who have been sitting-in in Tahrir and squares in Alexandria and other cities as opportunists and claimed that these protesters played no role in the January 25 uprising against former president Hosni Mubarak.

Revolutionary Youth Coalition members, who called for the 25 January Revolution and provided it with field command during the 18 days leading to the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak, responded by that Badawi was the very last person to be able to judge who did or did not play a role in the 25 January Revolution, since his party was conspicuously absent throughout.

The Wafd party did take part in the sit-in that began in Tahrir on July 10 with a large stage across from Kentucky Fried Chicken but decided to pull out of the sit-in a mere three days ago.

In a public rally that Wafd held in Ibrahimiya district of Alexandria last night, El-Badawi also rejected the government’s new law that regulates parliamentary elections and described it as ‘lacking’. He stated that the law which allocates 50% of contested seats to individual candidacy, rather than party lists, opens the door to remnants of the now dismantled National Democratic Party, Mubarak’s main political tool for 30 plus years, to win big thus rendering democratic reforms meaningless.

El-Badawi insisted that his party is determined to continue in its political and electoral alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood in order to compete effectively in any upcoming elections. Along those lines, the head of Wafd told the crowds at the rally that he agrees with the Brotherhood that Islam is and should remain the official religion of the state.



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