The Wafd Party is descending into chaos. And it is not alone, reports Mona El-Nahhas Hundreds of Wafdists are expected to convene today at the party's headquarters in an attempt to change party statutes so as to curb the powers of the chairman. The move, part of an ongoing power struggle within the liberal Wafd Party, has been coordinated by members of the Higher Council, led by Mahmoud Abaza. It was Abaza's group of reformists that in January spearheaded the challenge to party chairman Noaman Gomaa which led to his dismissal. The reformers cited Gomaa's dictatorial style and violation of Higher Council decisions as the reasons behind the coup and claimed they were seeking a complete overhaul of the party following its poor showing in last year's presidential and parliamentary polls. Gomaa had made his own reform proposals in December but they did little to curb his authority as chairman and as a consequence were rejected by reformers. Following Gomaa's dismissal the two camps started an extended bout of in-fighting, with each questioning the legality of the others' actions. At today's general assembly a group of mediators, led by the party's Secretary-General El-Sayed Badawi, will attempt to encourage the warring factions to begin talks to heal the party's wounds. "Negotiations," Badawi told Al-Ahram Weekly, "are the only way to end the crisis and save the party. It is what I said at the very beginning of the crisis and my opinion has not changed. Yet the two groups preferred to escalate the confrontation." After his dismissal Gomaa, who took over as chairman following the death of Fouad Seraggedin in 2000, accused his opponents of being US agents and accepting money from the US embassy. In response Abaza and his allies decided to sue Gomaa for libel. Gomaa also refused to accept any of the decisions -- including the election of Mustafa El-Tawil as temporary chairman until a full vote takes place next June -- taken by the General Assembly, arguing that the meeting was itself illegal. A Giza court originally agreed with Gomaa, though its judgment was challenged by the reformers, who eventually took their case to the Political Parties Committee. The committee, though, refused to intervene, and during a meeting held last Thursday repeated its decision not to meddle in the Wafd's internal power struggle. "The situation will remain as it is until the warring factions settle matters among themselves or else appeal to the courts," announced the committee. Gomaa's dwindling band of supporters interpreted the Committee's position as a slap in the face of the reformers. It means, said Ahmed Nasser, "that Gomaa remains the legitimate leader of the Wafd". Nasser predicted that the reformers, who are facing an acute financial crisis since the party's assets will be hamstrung until it is decided who really is in charge of the party, will now change tactics. But Abaza and the reformers read the situation differently. "The decision will not serve anyone. All it means is that the matter will be referred to the courts and it will be a long time before anything is settled," said Mohamed Sarhan. Political commentator Amr Hashem Rabie suspects the Wafd is heading towards being frozen. "Nothing will be settled," Rabie said, because nothing ever is when political parties fall apart at the seams due to internal power struggles and negotiations will lead nowhere now that the dispute has assumed such personal overtones. "Gomaa will fight tooth and nail to keep the chair while the other group seems to care for power rather more than reform." Rabie criticised the state's "irrational attempts to weaken opposition parties through stirring internal disputes within their ranks or actively supporting one of the fighting camps". In the case of the Wafd, Rabie believes, state backing of Gomaa has been blatant. Following his dismissal the prosecutor-general immediately issued a decree allowing him access to the party headquarters so that he could resume his role as chairman. The Wafd is not alone in facing such problems, says Rabie, and a major overhaul of the structure of opposition parties is long overdue. During Thursday's meeting the Political Parties Committee also decided to annul a decision it had made in January 2005 naming Helmi Salem as chairman of the Al-Ahrar Party. The earlier decision had ended seven years of fighting between various factions within the party. It was revised after the State Council recommended that the Political Parties Committee had no mandate to intervene in internal party affairs and no power to name party chairmen. Although State Council decisions carry no legal force the committee decided to abide by its ruling and in doing so appear to have pushed Al-Ahrar back to square one. Helmi Salem's rival, MP Talat El-Sadat, hurriedly announced that he would convene a general conference of the party on 31 March at which members could elect a new chairman. In his own reaction to the committee's decision, Salem told the Weekly that it will not affect his position as party chairman in any way. Plus ça change. "I never did ask the committee for recognition. Recognition by the majority of party members is enough for me," Salem said, describing El-Sadat's call for a general meeting as lacking legitimacy.
