13 - 19 December 2001
Issue No.564
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 13 - 19 December 2001 Issue No.564 |
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New, younger face for NDP
In a sustained effort to reinvigorate the ruling party President Mubarak, as NDP chairman, has initiated a new phase of reform. Gamal Essam El-Din reports
On 4 December, President Hosni Mubarak announced a shuffling of the general secretariat of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) -- the second in less than two years. The changes, which followed a one-year-long NDP internal review, are primarily aimed at upgrading the party's performance in preparation for next year's municipal elections.
The secretariat will continue to comprise 24 members. The shuffle witnessed the departure of seven members and the appearance of five new ones. Those leaving the secretariat include two cabinet ministers: Mohamed Zaki Abu-Amer (administrative development) and Ahmed El-Amawi (manpower). Others no longer part of the party's leadership are Farkhonda Hassan, outgoing secretary for women's affairs, Fawziya Abdel-Sattar, outgoing chairwoman of parliament's Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee, and Adel Bishai, a professor of economics at the American University in Cairo (AUC).
Topping the list of new members is Mahmoud Mohieddin, 36, whose inclusion is viewed by political analysts to reflect a drive to bring new blood to the highest echelons of the party. Mohieddin belongs to one of Egypt's leading "political families." Two of his cousins, Zakaria and Fouad, were prime ministers, and a third, Khaled, is a long-time MP and leader of the leftist Tagammu Party. A graduate of Cairo University's Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Mohieddin was appointed in 1995 as senior adviser to then Economy Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali (now minister of foreign trade). In May, he was made chairman of the NDP's 170-member Economic Affairs Committee.
Two women are among the secretariat's new members. Fayza Hammouda replaced Farkhonda Hassan as NDP secretary for women's affairs. A graduate of Cairo University's Faculty of Science, Hammouda is currently a professor at the National Research Centre. Yomna El-Hamaki also joined the secretariat. She is a professor of economics and an appointed member of the Shura Council.
Both Mohieddin and Hammouda did master's degrees in England.
The remaining two new members are Abdel- Rahman Farag Mohsen, chairman of the Shura Council's Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee, and Fathi Qozman, chairman of the People's Assembly's Defence and National Security Committee. With this shuffle the secretariat includes eight cabinet ministers, four women, four Coptic Christians and four young members, aged 35 to 45 years.
As part of the reform process launched following the party's poor performance in last year's parliamentary elections, the reshuffle follows nearly a year of work by various NDP committees. A nine-member committee was formed last December to upgrade the party's capabilities. Another four-member evaluation sub-committee visited Egypt's governorates and prepared a comprehensive report on the reforms required to improve the party's performance.
Gamal Mubarak, who joined the NDP's secretariat in February 2000, is considered the driving force behind the reform efforts. In a recent interview with Al-Mussawar magazine, Mubarak said he will try to attract to the party young people, who make up the majority of voters in next year's municipal elections and in the parliamentary elections of 2005.
At a recent meeting with hundreds of young men at a youth camp in Alexandria, Mubarak said, "The attempts over the last two years to revamp the NDP were far from adequate. In certain situations, the selection of the party's candidates in elections was not based on sound criteria; choices were even made haphazardly. The party's performance also lacked seriousness and discipline."
He told Al-Mussawar that the second stage of the reform plan has been completed. "The plan introduces reform in three areas," Mubarak said. The first area is the system for choosing party candidates, which will be revamped ahead of April's municipal elections. "We will use, but in a modified way, the community electoral system that we introduced last June for the Shura Council's mid- terms elections," Mubarak said.
The system used for Shura Council elections gave senior party members at the district level the power to nominate -- by secret ballot -- the candidates they believed had the best chance of success.
Zakaria Azmi, a member of the NDP's secretariat and chief of the presidential staff, said the system will be modified to give all party members at district levels the power to nominate candidates. Also, nominations will be made by open, not secret, ballot.
The NDP's organisational structure is also being modified to include new posts. Alieddin Hilal, minister for youth affairs, was made secretary for political education. Hilal will be responsible for touring governorates to raise political awareness among the party's young members. Mufid Shehab, minister of higher education, will oversee 19 party committees. Zakaria Azmi was appointed NDP treasurer and chairman of its Administrative Committee and was given the responsibility for promoting party membership, which is approximately 2.7 million.
The third area of reform is implementing a system of internal elections to fill positions in the general secretariat and politburo. "I hope these will be held two months ahead of the party's eighth congress that is scheduled for 20 July 2002," Gamal Mubarak said.
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