The Wafd Party on Friday will begin one of its most important elections in the party's history, in which Mahmoud Abaza and el-Sayyid el-Badawi will vie for the chairman's seat. The winner will be selected by the party's general assembly, which comprises 2036 members, and will spend four years in office. Essam Shiha, senior member of the party's secretariat, announced that, once the legal quorum for the assembly is 51 percent complete, elections will begin at 10 AM, with voting taking place from 1 PM to 5 PM. Candidates have stepped up their electoral campaings in recent days. While Abaza headed to Fayoum Thursday morning to drum up support, el-Badawi attended a major conference in Cairo organized by party member Tareq Sabbaq, who declared his support for el-Badawi two weeks ago. Wafd's honorary president, Mustafa el-Tawil, said that most members supported el-Badawi out of a desire for change. This did not, however, detract from Abaza, he added. El-Tawil preferred not to announce his support for either candidate so as not to affect the voters' choice. Campaigning heated up in the final hours leading up to the vote, when members of the general assembly received SMS messages is support of each nominee. In a phone call with Al-Masry Al-Youm, el-Badawi alleged that some people had impersonated his supporters in order to spread lies about his campaign. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
