Nation's Future Party
The Nation's Future Party, also known as the Future of a Nation Party, the Future of the Homeland Party, the Homeland's Future Party, and transliterated as Mostaqbal Watan, is an Egyptian political party. The party is often seen as a "party of power", created for the sole purpose of backing President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his policies.
Originally a minor party, it has grown to become Egypt's largest political party and currently controls the majority of seats in the House of Representatives and a plurality of seats in the Senate. The dominant role of the Nation's Future Party in modern Egyptian politics has been compared to that of the National Democratic Party, which ruled from 1978 until the 2011 revolution.
History
Nation's Future Party was set up in mid-2014 by Egyptian Military Intelligence. Abdel Azim, a former member of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's presidential campaign, told Mada Masr: A student responsible for Nation's Future Party campaigning in his governorate was interviewed by Mada Masr. He stated that a Military Intelligence officer in civilian clothes frequently delivered cash payments of typically to the campaign office, and later on cheques, including one from the National Bank of Egypt for. For each street march, to would be delivered, and young men organised by government agencies would be paid each to participate in the marches. Instead of being run by volunteers, the campaign office was staffed by civil servants. Campaigning for signatures for Sisi's presidential candidacy by Nation's Future Party included payments of to each person signing. Party leader Mohamed Badran took his instructions, according to the interviewee, from Major Ahmed Shaaban of Military Intelligence.2015 parliamentary election
The Nation's Future Party ran in the 2015 parliamentary elections as part of the "For the Love of Egypt" electoral alliance, which won all 120 party seats in the parliament. It was subsequently allocated 53 seats in parliament, making it the second-largest party after the Free Egyptians Party that won 65 seats, and ahead of the New Wafd Party, Egypt's oldest political party.2018 presidential election
In 2018, after all political parties, except for the Ghad Party led by Moussa Mostafa Moussa, failed to field candidates for the presidential election in March that year, calls to merge Egypt's 104 political parties into four or five strong parties increased. In response, efforts to strengthen the presence of powerful parties in the Egyptian political scene, primarily led by the Free Egyptians Party, the Nation's Future Party, and the New Wafd Party—as well as the Support Egypt Coalition, which holds 400 out of 597 seats in the Egyptian parliament—began.The Nation's Future Party and the For the Love of Egypt alliance announced that the alliance would merge into the party. Following the announcement, around 50 MPs resigned from their parties in May 2018 and joined the Nation's Future Party; most of these came from the Free Egyptians and Wafd parties but there were many independents and other party members.