Emad Abdel-Ghaffour has announced his resignation from the post of Chairman of the ultra-Conservative Al-Nur Salafist Party, which was founded after the January 25 Revolution and in 2011 won 26 per cent of the seats in the now-dissolved Parliament. He officially announced on Tuesday that he will found a new party called ‘Al-Watan', local media reported on Tuesday. Abdul Ghaffour, an aide to President Mohamad Morsi, added that some former senior officials in Al-Nur have made an alliance with other ultra-conservative Islamists, including Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, in order to compete for all the seats in the next People's Assembly. “Our aim is to unify Efyptians, give advice to them not criticise and to rather seek the advancement of our country," abdel-Ghafour said on Tuesday during the announcement of the fundation of the party. Political analysts said this decision to resign has come as a shock to Al-Nur, as it will divide the Salafist vote. Meanwhile, some analysts say this new party will enrich Egypt's political scene. Salafist Call sources said that the alliance has been designed split the Salafists and their political arm, according to Al-Shorouk newspaper yesterday. The sources added that this is a plot organised by what is known as the ‘Legislative Body for Reform and Right', governed by Khairat el-Shater, the Deputy Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, in a bid to divide the Salafist trend into two, in favour of the Brotherhood. “It is all political calculations," commented the newspaper. It is said that the forthcoming parliamentary election will witness a division between two major fronts: Islamists and the opposition. The National Salvation Front, including liberals, Nasserists, secular figures and opposition parties, has announced that it will run in the parliamentary elections on one list against the Islamists. Members of the nascent Al-Watan Party said they will ally with Abu Ismail, a widely popular Salafist, who was barred form running in the last presidential elections, as it was reported that his late mother had a US passport, thus violating the regulations for her son's presidential bid. “We have withdrawn from Al-Nur Party, as we feel it has no democratic mechanisms," said Kamal Abdul Jawad, an Al-Watan official. “We have decided to resign and establish our own party, whose aim is to unify the ranks of the Islamist current." Other founders said that Al-Watan is open to all Egyptians, including Christians. Sources at Al-Nur Party said that they have decided to run in the parliamentary elections alone, without entering into any alliance, especially with the Muslim Brotherhood. The sources added that the popularity of the Brotherhood has declined. Meanwhile, Yousri Hammad, the former spokesman for Al-Nur Party and now a senior official of Al-Watan, said that Al-Watan aims at putting forward major economic projects, seeking to achieve improvement in standard of living.
