At a press conference on Wednesday, Wafd Party President Al-Sayed al-Badawy announced the party's preliminary candidate list for next month's parliamentary elections. The party plans to field 176 candidates in 27 different governorates, including 17 women. According to Al-Badawy, members of the party's executive board had allocated LE12 million for campaign advertising. He added that ad campaigns would be launched within days on different satellite television channels--with the exception of the Al-Hayat channel, which al-Badawy owns--radio stations, the Internet and billboards. The party has adopted "It's Time" as its electoral campaign slogan. Al-Badawy explained that a second candidate list would be announced next week, which is expected to include Egyptian business tycoon Ramy Lakah and 12 candidates running as nominal independents. Al-Badawy also said the Wafd would coordinate its electoral strategy with the Tagammu and Nasserist opposition parties, but not with the Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement. He went on to deny allegations that some Wafd Party candidates had relinquished their constituencies to candidates affiliated with the ruling National Democratic Party or to certain ministers. Al-Badawy expressed regret that the government had not provided guarantees for free and fair elections in line with opposition demands. “We have therefore formed a supervisory committee to monitor and report electoral violations,” he said. "We will film violations and broadcast them on satellite channels.” Al-Badawy stressed, however, that he was opposed to international oversight of Egypt's elections. “This would constitute a breach of our national sovereignty,” he said. “When it comes to electoral integrity, we'll take the president at his word.” Wafd executive board member Essam Shiha, for his part, said that several would-be party candidates had complained about their exclusion from the candidate list. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
