Wasat Party calls for Islamist electoral alliance

Moderate Islamist parties hold press conference to discuss possibility of forming an electoral alliance in upcoming parliamentary elections slated for April The moderate Islamist Wasat Party held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon after converging with a number of moderate-Islamist parties to discuss the possibility of forging a centrist-Islamist electoral alliance in upcoming parliamentary elections. Wasat Party members extended their invitation to a number of other political parties, including the secular Ghad El-Thawra (the Revolution’s Tomorrow) Party led by political figure Ayman Nour, the centrist Hadara ('Civilization') Party and the Egyptian Current Party, which was established primarily by former Muslim Brotherhood youth members. A number of Salafi parties also took part in the meeting including Asala, Fadila, Sarh Al-Masry, Sahwa and The Reform and Renaissance Party. Negotiations to start an allience included at least eight parties before the invitation was extended to other parties, said Abu Ela Madi, the head of Wasat Party and a member of the Constituent Assembly, which was tasked with drafting Egypt's new constitution. Mohamed Mahsoub, member of the Wasat Party's higher commission and resigned minister of state for parliamentary affairs in Qandil's cabinet, said: "We hope that this alliance will be a political, electoral and cultural one that is able to restore the national cohesion away from any polarization." For his part, Mahmoud El-Khodairy, reformist judge and former head of the legislative committee of the now-dissolved People's Assembly, pointed out that all attending members agreed that the alliance's electoral lists will be "representative of all currents and fabrics of society irrespective of religion, sex or any political affiliation." Islam Lotfy, a former Muslim Brotherhood member and founding member of the moderate-Islamist Egyptian Current Party asserted that his party has not joined the alliance yet, and that the meeting is a mere advisory one and is not a final launch of the alliance. From Ahramonline