The eight members of the Wafd Party whose memberships were suspended have called for the dismissal of Al-sayed al-Badawi, the party leader.
Fouad Badrawi, Yassin Tag Eddin, Essam Shiha, Mustafa Raslan, Abdel Aziz al-Nahas, Sherif Taher, Ahmed Younis and Mohamed al-Messiri were suspended for meeting in Sharqiya on Friday to withdraw their confidence in the party president.
Ahmed Auda, head of the investigatory committee, said the committee is meeting in three days to investigate the suspended members, denying that there is discord among party members.
He explained that he and other leading figures of the party had suggested the members be expelled, but other preferred to suspend their memberships as expelling them without investigation gives them the right to challenge the decision, according to regulations.
Badrawi said in an interview with a satellite TV channel that the meeting in Sharqiya was not conducted to withdraw confidence from the president, but to ask him to leave voluntarily, which was approved by 1,200 members who had attended the meeting.
Auda, however, said the young party members have renewed their confidence in al-Badawy and threatened to kill his opponents if they enter the headquarters. He believes Badrawi is leading a mutiny because he had failed to win in the party's leadership elections.
For his part, Honorary President Mustafa al-Tawil said the withdrawal of confidence must be requested by 20 members of the High Committee and signed by 500 members of the General Assembly in order to conduct an emergency session for a vote.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
