Wafd party freezes the membership of 6 of his members for not voting for the CA (Photo: Reuters)
Sayed El-Badawi, chief of the Wafd Party, has decided to suspend the membership of six of his party's representatives in the People's Assembly and the Shura Council (the lower and upper houses of Parliament), because they abstained from voting for the Wafd's candidates for the Constituent Assembly (CA).
The Constituent Assembly is the body responsible for writing a new constitution.
The six members' decision was described by El-Badawi as "breaking from the party's obligation."
The dissenting Wafd members abstained from the votes as part of a wide rejection of perceived Islamist monopolisation of seat allocation.
A statement published on Tuesday on behalf of the party stated that, according to Article 5 of the party's regulations, the members are to be sent to the executive bureau to be questioned.
The MPs to be questioned are Yasser Barakat, Tarek Sebaq, Marguerite Azzar, Nabeel Motawea, as well as members of the Shura Council Mohamed Hashish and Mevat Ebeid.
The party points out that 51 of its members have abided by the party's protocols and succeeded in voting for the party's candidates for the assembly.
A total of 57 MPs reportedly withdrew from Tuesday's joint session to register their dissatisfaction with perceived Islamist monopolisation of places in the assembly.
These included representatives of the 'Egyptian Bloc' parties, the 'Revolution Continues' bloc, the Hurriyah Party, the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, the Egyptian-Arabic Union Party, the Egyptian Citizen Party and the liberal Wafd Party, along with several independent candidate.
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