Hassan Ibrahim / DNE
Al-Nour Party’s general assembly elected on Wednesday 50 party members to form a new high board.
The general assembly at Al-Azhar conference centre, Nasr City, also saw to the election of four general assembly secretariats and senators. The former head of the party’s committee in the dissolved Peoples’ Assembly, Youness Makhyoun, was elected as the new party head.
Among the new members of the high board are: the party’s spokesperson Nader Bakkar; Al-Sayed Mustafa Khalifa; Ashraf Thabet; and Sha’ban Abdel Alim. Makhyoun and the high board are expected to appoint the deputy heads, the secretary general and his deputy, the planning committee head, the membership affairs committee head, and the culture committee head, according to Khalifa.
Following Makhyoun’s election, two leading party members quit the party in protest at what they perceived as the Salafi Da’wa movement’s intervention in the party’s political affairs, reported state-owned Al-Ahram. Ibrahim Al-Hayawan and Hesham Al-Naggar left Al-Nour Party to join contending Salafi party Al-Watan. Al-Nour Party was formed by Salafi Da’wa members and some see it as Da’wa’s political wing.
“Al-Naggar left Al-Nour Party over two weeks ago,” Khalifa said, denying that the two members quitting was in connection to Makhyoun’s election. “He was among the first founders of Al-Watan party; he attended the meeting the party held even before its inauguration.”
Khalifa stated that Al-Hayawan wasn’t present during Wednesday’s general assembly and didn’t take part in the elections. He denied any interference by the Salafi Da’wa in the party’s affairs, stating that the elections was an expression of the party members’ free choice.
Wednesday’s elections were the first since the rift which developed within the party and ended up with its split. The party’s former head Emad Abdel Ghaffour teamed with former spokespersons Mohamed Nour and Yousri Hammad alongside more than a 100 other party members to form Al-Watan a week ago.
