The supreme body of the Salafi-oriented Nour Party has decided to reappoint Emad Abdel Ghafour as party president until Thursday, when a new president and supreme body are elected.
The board of trustees had met with all sides in the party’s ongoing dispute, including Abdel Ghafour’s supporters and the supreme body, and was able bring the two sides towards a reconciliation. The supreme body released a statement late Friday renewing confidence in Abdel Ghafour and announcing that the party’s problems had been solved.
The supreme body of the Nour Party had announced on 26 September the dismissal of Emad Abdel Ghafour from his post as the party’s head. But a faction supporting Abdel Ghafour insisted that he was still president, as party rules do not allow the dismissal of the party's head unless through a general assembly meeting.
The crisis roots back to a dispute over the internal elections of the party, which led Abdel Ghafour to cancel them. The central election committee, however, decided to go on with the elections according to the supreme body’s instructions.
Mostafa Khalifa, who was named president following Abdel Ghafour’s dismissal, will temporarily relinquish his post until the meeting holds its general assembly meeting.
According to a statement issued by Nour Party spokesperson Nader Bakkar through Twitter, all parties agreed to go on with the party's internal elections according to the previously set schedule. It was also agreed that the wise men committee will consider all complaints submitted concerning the elections.
Bakkar added that he still does his job, set by the party’s supreme body, as spokesperson of the Nour party. The other spokespeople from the party are Yosri Hammad and Mohamed Nour; Bakkar had briefly been sacked from the position during the crisis.
The resolution comes before a scheduled meeting of the affairs committee on the disputeIt should be noted that the Nour Party crisis has ended just hours before the meeting of the Political Parties Affairs Committee to decide whether the party would be frozen.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
