The Wafd Party’s executive bureau recommended in a meeting late Monday that the party should withdraw from the constituent assembly.
The recommendation, made at the end of the meeting chaired by party leader Al-Sayed al-Badawy, will be submitted late Tuesday to the party’s parliamentary bloc and supreme board. Both will make a final decision on the issue, the party newspaper’s website said.
Parliament elected four Wafd members to the 100-member panel tasked with drafting the new constitution: MP Mahmoud al-Saqqa, MP Mohamed Dawoud, MP Margaret Azar and Badawy.
Wafd has 39 MPs in the People’s Assembly. It came in third after the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafi-oriented Nour Party, which together hold nearly two-thirds of the seats.
The party’s withdrawal would be significant for the panel, since it is the major secular political faction in the country.
As of Monday, five political parties and at least 14 secular public figures, including prominent politicians like independent MP Amr Hamzawy and Coptic activist Mona Makram Ebeid, had announced their withdrawal from the constituent assembly, with most saying they cannot participate in a body that represents only one political faction in Egyptian society.
Badawy had told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Monday that Wafd would hold a series of meetings to settle on a position concerning the constituent assembly.
He warned then that the formation of the constitutional panel had irritated all political forces, and stressed that the constitution cannot be solely laid down by the parliamentary majority.
