World Bulletin / News Desk

A major support bloc of ousted president Mohamed Morsi has launched consultations for reforming the alliance following the withdrawal of a second member of the body.

"The National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy has started consultations on restructuring the bloc to benefit from the energies of the youth of the January 2011 revolution and youth groups," alliance spokesman Khaled Said told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

"We will activate cooperation with movements opposing the coup as part of efforts…to achieve goals of the January 25 revolution," he said.

The move comes shortly after the Salafist Al-Watan Party suspended its membership in the alliance.

Mohamed Abdel-Mawgoud, a senior party leader, told AA that the move did not boil down to mismanagement within the pro-Morsi alliance.

"The decision stems from the current lack of prospects for political activity in Egypt due to [government] restrictions on party-affiliated work within a pluralist environment," Abdel-Mawgoud said.

A source within the party, meanwhile, said that the party had informed alliance leaders of its desire to pull out six months, but alliance leaders had asked it to postpone the decision until after the presidential elections, which were held in May.

Al-Watan is the second party to walk out of the pro-Morsi alliance in less than a month.

In late August, Al-Wasat Party announced its withdrawal from the alliance, citing plans to establish an umbrella group for forces across Egypt's political spectrum without exclusion.

The National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy was established in the wake of last year's ouster by the military of Morsi – a Muslim Brotherhood leader who in 2012 won Egypt's first free presidential poll.