Al-Masry Al-Youm published on December 13 news about a phone call that the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) General Guide Mohamed Mahdi Akef had made to al-Wafd Party President Mahmoud Abaza to wish him happy Greater Bairam. The daily had also reported on the statements by Abdel Aziz al-Nuhas, a member of the party's supreme committee, regarding the party's stance on the 2010 elections of the People's Assembly [the lower chamber of Egypt's parliament]. This news has raised great controversy inside al-Wafd Party and the MB. Al-Wafd leading figures said that many MB leaders had phoned Abaza to scold him for linking the wishes with the visit paid by Akef last Ramadan and for linking political cooperation to the shape of this cooperation, especially after el-Nohas's statements. El-Nohas affirmed that what he had said about al-Wafd Party's stance on the elections, if the MB were to run in the elections under al-Wafd's banner, was totally right. He pointed out that what had angered the MB was the fact that their visit to al-Wafd had been linked to their phone call to its president to congratulate him. "Al-Wafd and MB's wishes to each other are sincere and my statements on the elections have nothing to do with such wishes" he said. MB Vice-Guide Mohamed Habib said that when Mr. Akef phones or sends his wishes to parties, VIPs or political figures, he does so because he wants to keep in touch with the elite on special occasions, while political cooperation has nothing to do with that. Habib added that it is still to early to talk about cooperation between the MB and al-Wafd and that several stances have to be defined when the law on political rights is passed.
