CAIRO: The People's Assembly's constitutional and legislative affairs committee assigned one of its legal counselors to review the dispute over the Constitutional Party's leadership, after the party's deputy, Coptic lawyer, Mamdouh Ramzy, appointed himself as head. Mamdouh Qinawi, head and founder of the party, described Ramzy's appointment as a "slap on the wrist" by the regime after he announced his support for former IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei. Ramzy filed a request to the constitutional and legislation affairs committee to approve his appointment as the party's head. However, Qinawi told Daily News Egypt, “The request filed by Ramzy isn't worth looking at; it lacks the basic legal standing. Ramzy is someone who represents only himself." The constitutional and legislative affairs committee had convened on Wednesday and issued a number of decisions related to the dispute and called for establishing a new party called "Reform and Development," headed by Mohamed Anwar Esmat El-Sadat. Qinawi said that Ramzy claimed he had convened a General Assembly, attended by 216 people, but failed to mention who these people were or whether they were even members of the party. He added that the party's statute specifies the process through which an Emergency General Assembly should be convened, either through an invitation from the head of the party or through signatures of 300 party members, none of which Ramzy had followed. Qinawi had invited ElBaradei to run in the next presidential elections through his party, to bypass the obstacles imposed by Article 76 of the constitution that hinders the nomination of independent candidates; but ElBaradei declined. “ElBaradei refused to join us anyway and we won't pursue him," Qinawi said. “ElBaradei was hijacked by a group of no more than seven people. If it wasn't too early, I would disassociate myself from the National Coalition for Change, headed by ElBaradei." Ramzi announced a few months ago his intention to run in the coming presidential elections. He told Daily News Egypt that he didn't violate the party's statute and that the General Assembly was convened in his office on April 27, with the participation of 216 people. He added that he had notified the constitutional and legislative affairs committee of that the day following the General Assembly meeting. "Qinawi violated the party's traditions and pursued ElBaradei to invite him to run for president through the Constitutional Party despite the fact that one of the party's members [referring to himself] had already announced his intention to run." He also accused Qinawi of violating the Egyptian political parties' law by meeting with the Muslim Brotherhood, which is a banned group.
