CAIRO: Dozens of Al-Wafd newspaper reporters and editors demonstrated for hours in front of Cairo’s press syndicate on Wednesday, calling on Noaman Gomaa, overthrown party chairman, to release their paper for publication and to grant them their full financial rights.
The Wednesday protest is the latest in a series of angry protests and sit-ins that Al-Wafd reporters have staged since the halt of publication of the party newspaper last Friday. This time reporters from other independent newspapers such as Al-Masri Al-Youm joined Al-Wafd reporters in their protest. The reporters carried banners saying, “No to Al-Wafd’s ban, and “No to the delay of the reporters’ salaries.
Even as the High Committee of Journalists, under the blessing of Head of Parliament Fathi Sorour, issued a resolution calling on Gomaa to republish Al-Wafd “immediately, the latter was issuing his immediate refusal.
Gomaa’s choice to “temporarily ban the newspaper, deemed a “victim of the party’s inner political conflicts, was topped by his decision to dismiss both its editor-in-chief and managing editor. Gomaa previously told the press that he had certain conditions that had to be met in order for the newspaper to be reissued; one of the conditions was to list his name as party chairman and managing director of the newspaper on the front page. Another condition was a guarantee of newspaper neutrality during the current in-house strife between the two groups of party rivals.
Gomaa, in an official statement, also said that the newspaper staff have received their compensations regularly and “without delay, a statement directly contradicting reporters’ claims.
The party crisis reached a peak two weeks ago when Gomaa was overthrown by a group of Al-Wafd members that have chosen to call themselves “the reformists. The reformists include Al-Wafd’s senior leaders and political activists Mahmoud Abaza and Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour along with flocks of party members of the younger generation.
The inner revolution declared Gomaa officially removed from office, saying that the latter was a “dictator who wanted to hold on to his seat for as long as he could. The group also said that the deteriorating conditions of the party were a direct result of Gomaa’s fading ideology and his firm “authoritarian grip on the party’s policies. The “reformists vowed to elect a new chairman within 60 days of Gomaa’s forcible removal from office.
For several days, Gomaa and his party rivals both used the headquarters, since the prosecutor general had helped Gomaa gain non-violent access to the Dokki party headquarters (tightly secured by police forces and surrounded by armed riot police).
However, late Monday, Abaza, Abdel-Nour and their supporters cordoned off the entrance of the party headquarters and barred Gomaa from entry. Television networks and journalists were also shut out.
Gomaa, who spoke on air to Amr Adib on Tuesday, called on security to intervene; calling his rivals “thugs and “rebels whose “brutality must be put to an end.
In response, the prosecutor general – late Wednesday and for the second time – helped Gomaa enter the Dokki headquarters. His supporters surrounded Gomaa’s car, chanting in opposition to his rivals and shouting that Gomaa “is the only true leader of Al-Wafd.
The prosecutor told the press that his constant support for Gomaa was neither meant to solve the crisis, nor was it intended to declare Gomaa chairman.
Different political groups have offered to intervene to give “council to the two fighting groups. However, analysts predict the current conflict is far “too fierce to be resolved through mediation or reconciliation.
The conflicting Al-Wafd members and leaders await the decision in two court cases recently filed by Gomaa against the “reformists. Gomaa said he is hopeful that the court verdicts, one of them expected to be issued next Saturday, will both be in his favor.
