The Wafd Party is threatening to withdraw from Sunday's re-run, reports Mohamed Abdel-Baky Having captured only two seats and after 93 per cent of its candidates lost in the parliamentary elections, the Wafd Party has decided to consider withdrawing from the run-off. The intention is understandable. In the first round only two Wafd candidates won out of 222 candidates throughout the country. Thirteen candidates were to contest the run-off. Party figures who lost included Mona Makram Ebeid, Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, the party's secretary-general and Mustafa Sherdi, the party spokesman. In a press conference attended by most of the party's senior leaders, Wafd Chairman El-Sayed El-Badawi put the parliament's legitimacy into question. "We call on the Higher Election Commission to reconsider the election results. An investigation into complaints should be launched first," El-Badawi said. He added that the election witnessed violations which could result in subverting the whole electoral process, "as the NDP won seats in an unfair game". What the NDP candidates did was violate the "presidential promise to have free and fair elections. Fraud was rampant in the absence of credible supervision of the elections," El-Badawi said. El-Badawi also announced that the party will send a comprehensive report to President Hosni Mubarak, containing all alleged violations and fraud that occurred on election day. "Mubarak is our only hope. As an arbiter between the state authorities, we urge him to take the necessary measures to restore the Wafd's confidence in the elections," El-Badawi said. He added that the file would contain documents, videos and pictures of alleged fraud cases, in addition to policy recommendations prepared by law and constitution experts that these violations could jeopardise the legitimacy of the upcoming parliament in domestic and international public opinion. The party chairman also referred to a group of lawyers and experts "working hard to file complaints concerning fraud in the constituencies." Before the election many observers expected the Wafd would win at least 40 seats after the NDP and the government urged opposition parties to run for parliament. Other media reports said that the party had made a deal with the NDP to oust the Muslim Brotherhood from parliament by taking their seats. In return the Wafd would participate in the parliament and presidential elections. The party leaders earlier announced that a withdrawal from the run-off was being discussed with the candidates who had the right to continue if they wanted. The effectiveness of boycotting the run-off was a question posed by Al-Ahram Weekly to Abdel-Nour. "Withdrawing from the run-off will represent serious pressure on the NDP as it will be alone in the run-off along with independents who are mostly NDP," Abdel-Nour argued. He added that if other parties especially Tagammu withdraw, the NDP will be alone in parliament and a boycott of the presidential parliament would be possible. Abdel-Nour lost the election in Gerga constituency in Sohag governorate, after charges by the Wafd that 20 ballot boxes were stuffed. The party also said there was wide-scale fraud which marred the voting process in Cairo's Shubra and Sahel constituencies where candidate Taher Abu Zeid was running against the NDP. According to Egyptian law, any candidate could withdraw from the election 10 days before voting day, so technically Wafd candidates could not pull out of the run-off which will be held five days after the result. But Abdel-Nour said that withdrawing from the run-off "was an issue of principle, respecting the parties' values and principles and showing the world we are not part of this unfair game." But boycotting the presidential election could be the only card the Wafd can play vis-a-vis the NDP. The party's chairman said in a press conference that "there could be a decision to boycott the elections because of the fraud seen Sunday." Sherdi, the party's spokesman and its candidate in Port Said, said that "fighting thuggery" was not an easy mission for his supporters in the governorate. He added that he trusts the Egyptian judicial bodies to return to the Wafd their rights and he trusts the "will of the people who want a better future for Egypt." Alternatives other than withdrawing the run-off and next year's presidential elections seemed unavailable for the Wafd. Taking to the streets in peaceful demonstrations is out after the Wafd adopted a slogan during its campaign that "demonstrations are not the solution to Egypt's problems." Amr El-Shobaki, from the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told the Weekly before the Wafd's decision to withdraw that the Wafd will not pullout from either the run-off or presidential elections. "The party is an essential pillar of the Egyptian regime's legitimacy so boycotting any coming election is a radical move. The party would not be able to take it," El-Shobaki said. He added the party had done a poor job in administrating its election campaigns in many constituencies which gave the opportunity to independents and the NDP to win the battle. "From the beginning they knew that there will be violence and thuggery. They should have been ready for that using all legal means to avoid such a loss," El-Shobaki added. Experts had predicted the Wafd would win between six to eight seats in the run-off, most of them out of Cairo.
