Archive for MP Wahid Abdel Meguid

Abouel Fotouh and Wasat Party consider political alliance

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June 21st, 2012

Abul Ela Mady, the leader of the moderate Wasat Party, and former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh are considering a political alliance along with other forces and parties.

Abouel Fotouh and Mady met with Wasat’s deputy leader Essam Sultan, former MP Wahid Abdel Meguid, Nahda Party founder Ibrahim al-Zafarany and Hadara Party leader Hatem Azzam on Thursday for that purpose.

Wasat Party spokesperson Amr Farouk said the meeting seeks a way out of the crisis resulting from the dissolution of Parliament and the supplementary Constitutional Declaration. He declined to comment on the new political alliance.

Edited translation from MENA

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Secular forces wary of FJP intentions on Constituent Assembly

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May 31st, 2012

The Muslim Brotherhood is scheduled to meet with secular and liberal political players Saturday to discuss standards for selecting members of a new constitution-drafting assembly.

Mohamed Abul Ghar, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that secular forces feel the Brotherhood is trying to delay an agreement on the criteria for selecting the Constituent Assembly until after the presidential election.

The meeting was originally scheduled for Wednesday at the office of MP Wahid Abdel Meguid, coordinator of the Freedom and Justice Party-led Democratic Alliance. Abul Ghar said Wednesday was the second time the Brotherhood had postponed the meeting.

The People’s Assembly Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee on Saturday approved a draft law on standards for forming the assembly. A court ruling in April nullified the initial Islamist-dominated assembly for not being diverse enough to represent society.

Some MPs oppose the draft law, saying it does not stipulate that the assembly adequately represent all segments of society, as agreed upon in previous meetings with military leaders Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Sami Anan.

Ayman Abul Ela, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party's parliamentary bloc, told Al-Masry Al-Youm his party would agree on the assembly makeup provided it is not dominated by a single political force.

Wafd Party MP Ahmed Attalah said his party rejects the legislation because it believes the Freedom and Justice Party developed the bill without discussion with other parties and omitted the items agreed upon in the military council meetings.

Attalah sees the FJP as grasping to control the Constituent Assembly out of fear its powers would be limited to Parliament should Morsy lose the presidential runoff.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Political groups to meet Wednesday on Constituent Assembly formation

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May 13th, 2012

Political groups are scheduled to meet Wednesday to resolve the Constituent Assembly formation issue after all groups have agreed on standards seeking appropriate representation of all social segments, MP Wahid Abdel Meguid has said.

Abdel Meguid, a member of the committee tasked with resolving the issue, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that nine members of religious institutions will be part of the 100-member assembly that will write the constitution: five from Al-Azhar, two from the Coptic Orthodox Church, one from the Catholic Church and one from the evangelical church.

He said law figures including judges and constitutional experts will be represented by 15 seats, and syndicates will have eight seats. Public figures will be chosen by the end of the meeting, represented by 10 members.

“The next meeting will see final consensus over the issue,” Abdel Meguid said, adding that it would be the last such meeting.

“Disagreement among political forces was only about the political parties’ representation in the assembly. The Salafi Nour Party rejected political parties' representation at 37 percent, demanding it be 39 percent. However, the Democratic Egyptian Party and others demand representation be less than 37 percent,” he said.

He said political groups had agreed on voting procedures for each article of the new constitution, and that voting will take place in two steps.

At least 67 percent of the assembly members should agree on an article to finalize it, Abdel Meguid said. If this does not happen, the meeting would be postponed for 48 hours for a re-vote. In the re-vote, no less than 57 percent of members should agree on the article to finalize it.

Hatem Abdel Azim, a member of Parliament’s legislative committee, said, “The Constituent Assembly issue will end this week, and the committee will finalize a draft of the standards. It expects no crises while reviewing the standards as it had held hearing sessions while drafting them.”

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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MP says FJP, Nour Party to occupy 22 seats on Constituent Assembly

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April 26th, 2012

Political parties have agreed in principle to grant the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafi Nour Party 22 seats out of 100 on the Constituent Assembly that will draft Egypt's new constitution, according to MP Wahid Abdel Meguid, coordinator of the FJP-led Democratic Alliance.

Abdel Meguid, who is a member of the mediation committee that is working to end the impasse over the assembly’s makeup, said the parties involved in the mediation have agreed to grant 15 seats to the FJP, seven to the Nour Party, and four to the Wafd Party out of the 40 seats to be occupied by political parties.

Abdel Meguid's announcement reverses his earlier statement to Al-Masry Al-Youm that attendees of the mediation meetings had agreed that parliamentarians would not sit on the Constituent Assembly.

The Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly formed in March was suspended by a court ruling for its lack of diversity.

Abdel Meguid said that a meeting between the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and political parties has been postponed until Friday in the hopes that consensus can be achieved on the final formation of the assembly before the meeting.

He noted that participants in the mediation sessions have agreed to include moderate public figures and legal experts who are not affiliated with particular political movements.  

Adel Afify, chairman of the Salafi-led Asala Party, refused to comment on Abdel Meguid’s statements, arguing that the political parties involved in the mediation had agreed not to disclose any information about the meetings’ details. He called upon the SCAF to immediately intervene to end the impasse which, he said, has reached a dead end.

“If we leave the issue to negotiations between political parties, we will not settle on the formation before two years,” he said.

Edited Translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Brotherhood intensifies meetings to take final position on presidential election

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March 19th, 2012

Sources at the Muslim Brotherhood told Al-Masry Al-Youm Monday that the group is holding daily meetings with the leaders of the Freedom and Justice Party to arrive at a final position on the presidential elections.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources said those meetings were in response to the younger members of the group supporting the candidacy of Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh, a former leading figure of the group who is not favored by its leaders.

The sources also said the group rejected the nomination of Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat al-Shater as it had pledged not to field any member in the elections.

They added that the group does not intend to fire the supporters of Abouel Fotouh but would still take disciplinary action against them.

MP Wahid Abdel Meguid, MP, General Coordinator of the Democratic Alliance that is led by the FJP, said 30 members of the Alliance have signed in support of Abouel Fotouh, while no FJP members did.

Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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