The liberal Freedom Egypt Party has said that negotiations for a merger with the Constitution Party are proceeding positively, but a final decision on the move is yet to be made, according to a party statement Monday.
The statement by the party, which was established by former liberal MP Amr Hamzawy in May 2011 and won official recognition in June, said that the two parties haven’t yet finished a final agreement on a merger.
The statement added that the two parties had agreed to proceed with joint action and coordination on all political and national issues, according to the statement
The Constitution Party, founded by former IAEA director and democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei, obtained official approval in mid-September.
The liberal Adl Party announced its merger with Constitution Party in September.
A Constitution Party official, Shadly al-Ghazaly Harb, had told independent daily Al-Shorouk's web site last week that Freedom Egypt would join the party. Hamzawy told the same web site negotiations were ongoing regarding the merger.
Harb told Al-Shorouk that the party remains open for a merger with other groups, and that it had not entered in any electoral alliances. The nascent party has more than 20,000 members, he said.
Secular parties performed poorly in the last parliamentary elections that ended in January, failing to get a third of the seats in the Islamist-dominated Parliament.
In June, a Supreme Constitutional Court ruling resulted in the dissolution of the lower house.
The next elections are scheduled to take place two months after a public referendum on a new constitution.
