The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) is to meet on Wednesday with the Salafi Nour Party, the Jama'a al-Islamiya's Construction and Development Party, the Reform and Development Party, Karama Party and the Egyptian Social Democratic Party to choose the heads of 19 parliamentary committees. FJP executive committee member Azab Mostafa told Al-Masry Al-Youm that his party is keen on forming committees from all political forces so that the parliament truly represents all sectors of Egyptian society. There are 70 posts in the People's Assembly committees, Mostafa said. Wahid Abdel Meguid, general coordinator of the FJP-led Democratic Coalition, said that the liberal Wafd Party may still rejoin the coalition. Abdel Meguid added that the coalition's plans will not be hampered if Wafd chooses not to rejoin. Wafd Party Secretary General Fouad Badrawi denied coordinating with the FJP. “We will choose our own candidates for the committees,” he said. The FJP will control close to half the seats in the first Egyptian parliament elected since Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power last year. The party has secured 232 seats, or 46 percent, of the lower house. The hard-line Nour Party, which advocates strict application of Islamic law, has emerged with 113 seats, or 23 percent, putting Islamists of different stripes in control of more than two-thirds of the chamber, according to official figures. Liberal and secular forces fear that the FJP will dominate parliament in the way that the dissolved NDP did under the regime of former President Mubarak.
