CAIRO: Public Prosecutor Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud decided to shelf the complaint submitted by former Al Wafd party leader Mahmoud Abaza against Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper over reports alleging that his party had struck a secret deal with the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The independent daily had reported that the NDP struck a secret deal with certain opposition parties including Al Wafd to divide the Muslim Brotherhood seats in parliament amongst them in the coming PA elections in exchange for Al Wafd and the other opposition parties' promise not to support the presidential ambitions of former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei. According to the published report, Al Wafd would have received 23 seats in the People's Assembly election this year in exchange for offering no support to ElBaradei. The parliamentary seats that would be given are currently held by Brotherhood MPs. The prosecutor's office had established in its report that the newspaper article fell within the category of “permitted criticism” and that it was more of a critique of the NDP than of Al Wafd. The report also stated that the newspaper abided by the principle of the right of reply as it published denials by both Abaza and the Secretary General of the NDP Safwat Al-Sherif the following day. “The NDP does not make deals with any opposition parties,” NDP MP Mohamed Khalil Kwaiteh told Daily News Egypt at the time, “There are elections and these parties must take their agenda to the people and see if it resonates with them.” The Muslim Brotherhood holds 88 seats in the current parliament as independents. Those seats would have allegedly been divided up between Al Wafd, Tagammu and Nasserist parties among others.
