By Mohamad Baali
Albawaba.com - Cairo
Egypt’s strife-ridden opposition Labor Party on Monday appeared to be headed for an internal reconciliation of sorts.
Party leader Ibrahim Shukri asked to convene a meeting of Labor’s executive committee next Sunday, signaling a thaw in his icy relations with the party’s secretary general Magdi Hussein.
The executive committee is dominated by Hussein, who has a long-running feud with the party leader since being expelled from his post as editor in chief of the Al Shaab party paper. Ten of his allies were also knocked off the party membership roll in the same purge.
The dismissals came after the party’s executive committee challenged the party leader’s decisions regarding the appointment of a new editor in chief.
Sources from the party’s executive committee told Albawaba.com on Monday that the meeting would mark the beginning of reconciliation between Shukri and Hussein.
The executive committee initiated the possible reconciliation last week when it reiterated in a statement that Gen. Tala’t Musallam, an influential party member, had been behind the expulsion of Hussein and his allies. The statement accused Musallam of attempting to create divisions within the party.
Shukri responded to this initiative by refraining from criticizing Hussein and by calling the Sunday meeting of the executive committee.
The party leader did not invite Musallam to the meeting, reportedly because of his alleged igniting the recent crisis within the party, the sources said.
The Islamic-oriented opposition party is operating under a ban imposed by the ruling National Democratic Party.
The ban came after Al Shaab launched a press campaign against the reprinting of the novel Walimah Li Aa’shab Al Bahr (A Banquet of Seaweed), igniting violent demonstrations by Al Azhar University students in which hundreds were injured.
