Former Wafd chairman Abou Shoka
In a letter to party members, Abou Shoka said his decision was driven by what he described as procedural violations that undermine the legitimacy of the elections scheduled for 30 January.
He stressed that his objections were not directed at the election’s supervisory committee, which he said acted with transparency and neutrality, but at flaws in the electoral process itself.
Abou Shoka said the elections failed to meet basic requirements, including the prior announcement of the voter database, clear timelines for filing and reviewing appeals, and the publication of final voter lists. He noted that these procedures had been followed during the party’s 2022 elections.
He added that the list of the party’s electoral body was posted on the party’s notice board on 11 January, after nomination and appeal deadlines had already closed, and that it excluded sectoral committees, in violation of Article 10 of the party’s bylaws.
Abou Shoka said he had urged the party leadership and the supervisory committee to refer the matter to the Political Parties Affairs Committee, citing provisions of the Political Parties Law that allow elections to be rejected if deemed invalid.
Warning that the situation could harm the party’s public image and lead to financial losses estimated at around five million Egyptian pounds, Abou Shoka said he chose to withdraw from the race to protect the party’s standing.
He said his resignation was intended to uphold the Wafd Party’s historic values and expressed hope that it would continue to serve as a national platform defending freedoms, justice, and the interests of the country and its citizens.
The Wafd Party’s leadership elections have seen major changes following the exclusion of Husseini El-Sharkawy from the race for failing to complete his nomination papers.
Further changes followed the withdrawal of Yasser Hassan, and later Abou Shoka.
As a result, five candidates remain in the race for the party’s presidency: El-Sayed El-Badawi, Hany Serry El-Din, Eid Heikal, Hamdy Qotta, and Essam El-Sabbahi.
The field initially included eight candidates before El-Sharkawy’s exclusion and the subsequent withdrawals of Hassan and Abou Shoka.
The Wafd Party is one of Egypt’s oldest and most prominent political parties. It was founded in 1918 after World War I as a nationalist movement demanding independence from British rule and emerged as the political expression of the 1919 Revolution, quickly becoming a mass-based party representing broad segments of Egyptian society.
In its early years, the party was led by Saad Zaghloul, whose leadership turned the Wafd into the dominant political force during the interwar period. It championed constitutional rule, parliamentary democracy, civil liberties, and national sovereignty and won repeated electoral victories following Egypt’s independence in 1922.
After the 1952 Revolution, all political parties, including the Wafd, were dissolved. The party was revived in the late 1970s under President Anwar Sadat as part of a limited return to multi-party politics.
Despite ongoing challenges, the party continues to carry symbolic weight from its historical legacy as the “House of the Nation,” reflecting its role in Egypt’s early struggle for independence and its longstanding association with constitutional politics and national unity.
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