The No Wasta Party

This morning Abu el-'illa Madi, leader of the would-be Wasat Party, will plead his cases for a real political party please, at the Supreme Administrative Court. He'll be there along with 12 other party leaders, who have had similar difficulty getting a stamp from officialdom. Madi, as you know, is a disgruntled ex-Brother (well, he's been disgruntled for ten years now) and has been trying to get the Wasat Party licensed as a real party, instead of waiting for the Brotherhood Behemoth to seize power.

Madi's been turned down four times in ten years. Wonder why. We don't think it is because the charter of his party really makes it a religious party (and therefore, agin the consitution). We think it is because the party is quite a good idea, (religious, but secular. how'd they do that?) and good political ideas that tap into the population's affection for God and all that, make the NDP reach for the Biltagiyya.

Madi has already been in prison for his efforts. Today he will have a go at court. The Supreme Admin Court's panel of experts has, in fact, last year recommended that the Wasat be legalised. The court has been dragging its feet on the verdict though.

Something might happen today, but given the current happy-go-lucky attitude from the regime towards Islamists (over 1000 lifted and held since May) we are not holding our breath.


UPDATE:
As we expected, the appeals of all 13 parties against their license application failure, were turned down by the Supreme Administrative Court today, including that of the Wasat party. Abu Madi was not impressed. CE's team of crack legal commandos are at work deciphering the statement of the court. But, as one Wasat member sarcastically shouted on hearing the judgement, we think the real meaning is "long live the NDP!"