Al-ARISH: Five members of the liberal Al-Wafd party in North Sinai have submitted their resignations to the party chairman Saturday in protest at the inclusion of former regime figures at the top of the party's electoral list in their constituency. Only days after Egypt's Supreme Electoral Commission started accepting candidature applications for parliamentary elections slated for November 28, Elwi Arafat Al-Kashef, a former Wafd leader, walked out along with four other members of his family. In a written statement outlining the reasons for the resignation, a copy of which was obtained by Daily News Egypt, Al-Kashef said that the inclusion of remnants of the former regime in Al-Wafd's party list for North Sinai violated the party's announced decision not to allow former regime figures to contest People's Assembly and Shoura Council seats on the party's lists. Al-Kashef said that this decision betrayed a “blatant lack of principles” and a “lack of responsibility” on the part of Al-Wafd's North Sinai leadership. Egypt's oldest liberal party will be contesting parliamentary elections through an independent list, having abandoned plans to run in a joint list with parties belonging to the Democratic Alliance, a coalition of 34 political parties headed by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. Responding to pressure from political parties, the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has announced that it will issue a decree amending articles in the Treachery Law that would ban leading figures from the disbanded former ruling party, the National Democratic Party, from practicing their political rights for up to five years. They may also be banned from assuming public office for their involvement in the corruption of political life.
