“Change” was an overly used word in a rare show of election at the premises of the opposition al-Wafd Party in Cairo, where thousands of party members gathered Friday to pick a newleader. El-Badawi won the race and became the new leader of al-Wafd Party for the next four years. The members, who came from placesas far as al-Miniya, about 400 kilometres south of Cairo, and the port city of Suez, about 120 kilometres northeast of the capital, hurried to the ballot boxes from the early hours of the morning and were happy to take part in polls they called “fair and honest”. “We talk about change all the time,” said Mohamed Sherdi, a journalist and alegislator from the party. “Now, this is time we have made this change to set an example for other political powers,” he told The Egyptian Gazette Online. The main contenders in the elections are Mahmoud Abaza, who has been the party leader for the past four years, and el-Sayed el-Badawi, a former party secretary-general and a business tycoon, were talking to the voters and pledging to work hard to bring al-Wafd Party to its old glory if they won. Al-Wafd, a party with liberal lines of thought and a strong following across the nation, has championed the opposition to the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) for more than two decades now. Its candidate, No'aman Gomaa, a former professor of law, came a distant second to incumbent President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential polls in 2005. Having seen the election moving ahead with a high turnout and all candidates getting equal chances, some observers liked to marvel at the processitself, regardless of the results. They said al-Wafd was keen on holding these ideal polls only to show that change in Egypt's context is not impossible and honest elections are not an unachievable goal. “We're all winners today,” said Salah Diab, a businessman and a party member. “Forget about the results, we only enjoy honest elections as a process,” he added. But other party members' hopes went beyond the process itself. They said el-Badawi, young, dynamic, and a successful businessman, can lead the party to even more successes in the future. “Let's make a change,” said Tareq Harash, a party member who voted for el-Badawi. “If el-Badawi doesn't prove to be up to the responsibility, we can change him. But we must make the change,” he added. El-Badawi has promised his followers to reinvigorate their party if he won the election for the next four years. He has even asked them to withdraw confidence from him, if he does not fulfil his promises within 18 months of his chairmanship of al-Wafd. The supporters of his rival, however, say he is unfit to lead. They say his business interests might come against those of the party in the future. “El-Badawi has been a party member over the last four years. But we haven't seen him even once,” said Mohamed el-Zahid. “Abaza has taken the party out of the failure, where it was mired andput it on the right track again,” he added. Some Wafdists credit Abaza for amending party laws in a way that limited the number of terms a party leader can stay in office. Now a party leader can only serve for two four-year terms. Others say he has been wise enough not to provoke the Government's anger that may harm the interests of the party. The results of the elections were expected late last night. “They're both good men,” said Moustafa el-Taweel, a legal expert and the current honorary chief of the party. “I hope the party can benefit from both candidates' efforts and thoughts in the future,” he said.
