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Ex-presidential candidate Khaled Ali leaves Egypt's Socialist Alliance Party Ali hands in his notice independent of the mass resignation Saturday of around 300 of the group's leading members
Former presidential hopeful Khaled Ali announced on Sunday his resignation from Egypt's Socialist Popular Alliance Party (SPAP), in another blow to the group amid recurrent walkouts. On Saturday, the leftist group received the resignation of some 280 of its members, who cited disenchantment with the party's internal policies and leadership decisions. However, Ali told Reuters' Aswat Masriya he had already tendered his resignation a few days ago, independently of Saturday's walk-outs. Ali, a lawyer and director of the Egyptian Centre of Economic and Social Rights, cited personal differences with the movement's organisational strategies. Even so, the former presidential candidate said he would persist in collaboration with the movement aside from these issues. Ali ran in the 2012 presidential elections, which saw ousted president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood movement emerge victorious. The party's head, veteran socialist Abdel-Ghafar Shukr, said on Sunday that the group's central committee had rejected all the resignations, including that of Ali. However, outgoing media spokesperson Mona Ezzat told Ahram's Arabic news website that the party has yet to officially respond to the resignations. Resigning members are planning to hold talks regarding the establishing of a "new entity" in the coming days, Ezzat added, without further elaborating. A statement released collectively by resigning members slammed what it described as the party's subservient position with the state, inaction with heavy-handed police practices and domination of the party by certain individuals. The SPAP was established in March 2011, and officially registered in September of the same year as the first Egyptian leftist party to be legally recognised after the 2011 popular uprising. Internecine fissures and collective resignations have found their way to most of Egypt's leading political groups, including the Tamarod (Rebel) campaign, which spearheaded calls for the 30 June mass protests that culminated in the toppling of Morsi. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/86088.aspx
