Egypt MP Emad Gad asks parliament to ‎change his political affiliation

Egyptian MP Emad Gad announced ‎Tuesday that he has officially informed ‎parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al of his ‎resignation from the Free Egyptians Party and ‎that he wants to act as an independent MP. ‎

Gad, who was elected to parliament as a member of the ‎liberal Free Egyptians Party and is a high-profile political analysts affiliated with Al-Ahram Press Organisation, said that he personally turned in his resignation to Abdel-Al over the failure of his party to pass on his request to the parliament speaker.

Gad said that the “parliament speaker should put my ‎resignation from the Free Egyptians Party to a ‎vote when parliament meets in a plenary ‎session next Saturday and MPs should ‎decide whether I can become an independent ‎MP or lose my parliamentary membership ‎altogether.”‎

According to Article 6 of the law on the exercise ‎of political rights (92/2015), MPs who won ‎seats in parliamentary elections as party-based ‎or independent candidates should retain their ‎political affiliations in parliament. If ‎anMP decides to abandon their party ‎affiliation, they would lose ‎their parliamentary membership upon the ‎approval of a two-thirds majority of MPs.‎

Gad told reporters that “if parliament votes ‎down my request to become an independent ‎MP, I would lose my parliamentary ‎membership and that is okay by me.”‎

The Free Egyptians Party, founded by ‎business tycoon Naguib Sawiris, holds the largest number of ‎seats for any party in Egypt’s parliament with 65 seats. ‎

Gad, who ran as a candidate for the party in Cairo, fell out with the Free Egyptians Party ‎early last month after it selected its candidate ‎Alaa Abed from Giza governorate to be its ‎official spokesman in parliament.

Gad ‎accused Abed of refusing to allow him to run ‎for the post of deputy speaker as the party’s candidate.

The party decided to freeze Gad’s ‎membership on 11 January after he chose to ‎run for the deputy speaker’s post as an ‎independent, where he won only five votes.‎

Some informed sources say the Support Egypt parliamentary bloc will urge Gad and the Free ‎Egyptians Party to mend fences and focus on their performance in parliament. ‎

Gad’s move came a few hours after Sirri Siam, ‎an appointed MP, submitted his resignation ‎from parliament.

Siam accused the parliament ‎speaker and other leading House officials of doing their best to sideline and ‎marginalise him.‎

source: Ahram Online

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