CAIRO: Abdel-Galeel Mustafa was temporarily appointed the coordinator of the Kefaya movement following the passing of Abdel Wahab El-Messiery earlier this month.
Kefaya member Ahmed Bahaa Shaaban welcomed the choice. He told Daily News Egypt, “Thankfully he agreed to be the temporary coordinator of the movement, to fill the void until a permanent one is chosen.
As for when a permanent replacement for Messeiry will be selected, Shaaban said that this will be decided by the end of the year.
Shaaban indicated Kefaya’s hope that Mustafa “agrees to stay on until then.
The head committee of the movement, which is made up of the coordinator and four senior members, are the decision-makers in the movement.
Shaaban added that the movement will convene soon to discuss the group’s future and what Kefaya intends to achieve in its next phase.
El-Messiery succumbed to a long bout of illness a few months shy of his 70th birthday. He was preceded in the role of Kefaya’s coordinator by George Ishaq.
El-Messeiry was planning to stand down from his position as Kefaya coordinator in October when he turned 70 to focus on the educational and social aspects of the movement, Shaaban said.
The Kefaya movement came to prominence during the 2005 presidential elections when it rallied the mass popular support of disparate and often antagonistic movements in the country and united them against the regime and its decades in power.
The word Kefaya (enough) became a rallying cry for all those who sought change in Egypt’s political landscape which had been stagnant for decades.
However, following that peak in 2005, the impetus of Kefaya slowed down as infighting and a government crackdown weakened it.
