Wafd

In the first parliament elected (1924) under the constitution of 1923, the Wafd won a large majority. King Fuad IFuad I
(Ahmed Fuad Pasha) , 1868–1936, first king of modern Egypt, son of the khedive Ismail Pasha. Educated in Europe, Fuad returned to Egypt in 1880. He was particularly concerned with military and cultural affairs and founded the Univ. of Cairo in 1906.
..... Click the link for more information. , who bitterly opposed the party, dissolved parliament and would not call a new election until 1926. Again the Wafd won, and in 1928 its new leader, Nahas PashaNahas Pasha
(Mustafa Nahas Pasha) , 1876–1965, Egyptian statesman, leader (1927–52) of the Wafd party. He was premier five times between 1928 and 1952. During World War II the British forced (1942) King Farouk to appoint Nahas as head of a government favorable to the
..... Click the link for more information. , became prime minister. That year the government introduced a measure forbidding the king to rule without parliament. Fuad, asserting that this would give the Wafd absolute control of the country, refused his assent and suspended the constitution. Nevertheless, in 1930 the Wafd was again victorious. Fuad soon dismissed the new cabinet and appointed a conservative prime minister, who made the party illegal.

When the constitution of 1923 was restored in 1935, the Wafd returned to power. They formed the cabinet in 1936–37. Relations with the new king, FaroukFarouk
, 1920–65, king of Egypt (1936–52), son and successor of Fuad I. After a short regency he acceded (1937) to the throne. A constitutional monarch, Farouk was frequently at odds with the Wafd, the largest Egyptian party.
..... Click the link for more information. , were scarcely more cordial than those with his father. In World War II the party, which was anti-Axis, was installed in office from 1942 to 1944 at the insistence of Great Britain, which feared pro-Axis elements. In the elections of 1950 the Wafd triumphed again, and Nahas Pasha returned as prime minister. The party lost much of its popularity because of charges of corruption and the support it had given the British during the war.

On Jan. 26, 1952, King Farouk took advantage of riots in Cairo to dismiss the Wafd from power. When the Egyptian revolution took place in July, 1952, Wafd politicians were discredited, and the party was forced to disband. The New Wafd party, established in 1978, had parliamentary representation in the 1980s but boycotted several elections in the 1990s. The rise of Islamists had by the 2005 parliamentary elections resulted in the Muslim BrotherhoodMuslim Brotherhood,
officially Jamiat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun [Arab.,=Society of Muslim Brothers], religious and political organization founded (1928) in Egypt by Hasan al-Banna.
..... Click the link for more information.  becoming the main opposition group, and in Jan., 2006, reformers won control of the New Wafd. Tensions between the old guard and reformers led to a gun battle at party headquarters in Apr., 2006. In the 2011–12 parliamentary elections, the party placed third (and first among the secular parties) in the first post-MubarakMubarak, Muhammad Hosni
, 1928–, president of Egypt (1981–2011). Air force commander (1972–75) and vice president (1975–81) of Egypt, he became president after Anwar al-Sadat was assassinated on Oct. 6, 1981.
..... Click the link for more information.  balloting.

Bibliography

See Z. M. Quraishi, Liberal Nationalism in Egypt (1967).