Egyptian MP Emad Gad announced Tuesday that he has officially informed parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al of his resignation from the Free Egyptians Party and that he wants to act as an independent MP. Gad, who was elected to parliament as a member of the liberal Free Egyptians Party and is a high-profile political analysts affiliated with Al-Ahram Press Organisation, said that he personally turned in his resignation to Abdel-Al over the failure of his party to pass on his request to the parliament speaker. Gad said that the "parliament speaker should put my resignation from the Free Egyptians Party to a vote when parliament meets in a plenary session next Saturday and MPs should decide whether I can become an independent MP or lose my parliamentary membership altogether." According to Article 6 of the law on the exercise of political rights (92/2015), MPs who won seats in parliamentary elections as party-based or independent candidates should retain their political affiliations in parliament. If anMP decides to abandon their party affiliation, they would lose their parliamentary membership upon the approval of a two-thirds majority of MPs. Gad told reporters that "if parliament votes down my request to become an independent MP, I would lose my parliamentary membership and that is okay by me." The Free Egyptians Party, founded by business tycoon Naguib Sawiris, holds the largest number of seats for any party in Egypt's parliament with 65 seats. Gad, who ran as a candidate for the party in Cairo, fell out with the Free Egyptians Party early last month after it selected its candidate Alaa Abed from Giza governorate to be its official spokesman in parliament. Gad accused Abed of refusing to allow him to run for the post of deputy speaker as the party's candidate. The party decided to freeze Gad's membership on 11 January after he chose to run for the deputy speaker's post as an independent, where he won only five votes. Some informed sources say the Support Egypt parliamentary bloc will urge Gad and the Free Egyptians Party to mend fences and focus on their performance in parliament. Gad's move came a few hours after Sirri Siam, an appointed MP, submitted his resignation from parliament. Siam accused the parliament speaker and other leading House officials of doing their best to sideline and marginalise him. source: Ahram Online
