Egyptian Chronicles: Al Wafd Party's Elections : It is too Good to be true

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Al Wafd Party's Elections : It is too Good to be true

El Wafd party has a new chairman, businessman ElSayed El Badawy Shehata who owns Hayat TV Network and Sigma Pharmaceutical according to the elections that were held last Friday in the party's HQ in Giza after a strong media battle with Mahmoud Abaza , the ex-chairman.
These elections are considered as a breakthrough in partisan life in Egypt as just the majority party the official parties believe that till death do us apart when it comes to its chairman.

The big blow to Abaza if I may say is the return of ElBaradei when he stood against the Young Wafd members who wanted to invite ElBaradei to join them before knowing his opinion in parties now adding more cracks in the famous liberal party. There is a huge hope that Shehata will restore the old glory of El Wafd which has lost a lot of its popularity in the street in time of Abaza.

Shehata and Abaza

But let's be realistic here there is no hope for Shehata and his party to regain past glory as long as the current parties law is effective , there is no hope for Shehata and his party to regain past popularity in the street as long as his channels proudly show Gamal Mubarak golden moments of joy when we won the CAN Cup 2010 in the promos of Hayat Today show
The winner from this election was Mona El-Shazely who presented the first real news professional debate between Abaza and Shehata last Tuesday , it was a great experience both viewers and journalists enjoyed and wondered if one day we will have a real debate between real parties.
I wish that Al Wafd returns back as it used to be in time of Saad Pasha and chooses the people over power , already I fear that in time of Shehata , it will be the real Neo Landlords party as all the big businessmen like Saleh Diab are going back to it ; in fact I read that Ramy Lakah is thinking of joining it !!
Anyhow good luck to Shehata and Al Wafd , it will not hurt to have a powerful opposition party to stand against the regime officially.
Here is what was the best in that partisan election : 10 PM's special debate between El Siyad El-Badawy Shehata and Mahmoud Abaza