Essam Khalil re-elected as head of Free Egyptians despite party fissures

Essam Khalil has been re-elected as head of the Free Egyptians Party by a quorum of members, an internal party committee announced after a vote on Friday.

A public assembly of party members gathered at a Cairo hotel on Friday, completing the required quorum of 450 members, Al-Ahram Arabic reported.

Khalil, the only candidate, was re-elected as head by acclamation, while 50 board members were elected out of 83 candidates, according to Al-Ahram. The names of the winning board candidates have not yet been announced.

Earlier this month a group of young members of the liberal party announced they would boycott the party's internal elections. Former party spokesman Shehab Wagih said the group is boycotting the forthcoming vote for the higher committee in protest at the party's internal disagreements.

"We must cooperate to build the party, after the phase of correcting its path," Al-Ahram quoted Khalil as saying after his win, adding that the party is ready to reach out to citizens on the ground.

Sawiris commented on the results via his official Twitter account, writing in Arabic: “Four hundred of 100,000 founding members of the Free Egyptians Party elect a chairman through acclamation, in an illegal election…Farce. #Judas."

In a different tweet on Friday, the billionaire businessman wrote: “I fully trust our fair judiciary to end this chaos, which disrespects the bylaws made by the parties’ committee, and we shall soon witness a closure to this farce,” referring to a number of members who attempted to attend the vote but were banned from entering.

The liberal Free Egyptians Party was founded soon after the 2011 revolution by telecoms tycoon Naguib Sawiris. The party holds the largest number of parliamentary seats of any single political party.

Discord between members started to surface last year, with some members infuriated by what they deemed as the party toeing the government's line. Others believed Sawiris was over-critical of the authorities.

The current showdown dates back to December 2016 when party members, headed by chair Essam Khalil, voted to dissolve the party’s board of trustees after amendments were made to its bylaws.

Matters worsened following the sacking of Sawiris after he failed to show up for questioning over accusations of libel against party members.

The board refused to accept the decision, calling it “a coup,” and accusing the political bureau of “hijacking" the party away from its founders. Sawiris has taken the matter to court.

Many other political parties which were founded following the 2011 uprising have been hit by internal differences or mass resignations, including the Constitution Party, founded by Nobel laureate and former vice president Mohamed ElBaradei, and the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, whose former head Mohamed Abul Ghar resigned after internal dissension, citing a failure to "heal the rift" within the party

Source: Ahram online