Party poopers

Disputes within the Nasserist Party flare up once again, reports Mona El-Nahhas

---

In an attempt to calm the situation following December's disastrous Nasserist Party conference, party leader Diaeddin Dawoud has announced that another conference is to be held to elect the party's secretary-general and four deputies. Nominations for the posts opened on Sunday and are scheduled to close today, though few party members expect the coming conference to be better than the last.

Since December's fourth general conference the Arab Nasserist Party has appeared at times on the verge of disintegration. Yet beyond renewing confidence in the party's 80-year-old leader, Dawoud, for another six years, the conference singularly failed to address any of the issues tearing the party apart. Instead, say many party members, it served only to fuel the rift between the old guard and reformists within the party's ranks.

The conference's organisers -- representatives of the old guard -- refused to initiate election procedures, arguing they were needless; instead, they suggested Ahmed Hassan, the secretary-general blamed by many for the party's collapse and who has been accused of abusing his powers and misusing party funds, simply be reconfirmed in his post along with a host of other senior party officials.

The suggestion enraged party rank and file.

"It was not a general conference. It was nothing but a farce," said Farouk El-Ashri, a member of the party's political bureau who intends to stand against Hassan.

Sameh Ashour, chairman of the Bar Association, also surprised the conference when he announced his intention to nominate himself for the post of first deputy chairman, an office that does not exist according to the party's statutes. He then joined the angry reformers battling to oust Hassan.

"We are here for reform and legitimacy," Ashour told party members.

Observers believe Ashour changed his position after realising that Hassan had been urging party members to vote against his nomination, arguing that such a post did not exist. Others suggest Hassan was afraid that, if elected, Ashour would amend the statutes to restrict the power of the secretary- general.

After securing his post Dawoud left the conference hall, leaving the Hassan and Ashour camps to fight it out. Yet only six months before Dawoud had announced that he would not be seeking re-nomination, preferring instead to let the younger generation take the helm. His decision, Dawoud insisted, was final.

The announcement met with the approval of many party members, especially those pressing for reform. Yet during the conference Dawoud revealed that he intended to run for another term, saying "continuity was necessary to keep the unity of the party at such a crucial time"; the "continuity" of which Dawoud spoke extended to include all party posts.

Following the conference Dawoud, whose backing of Hassan is no secret, began to attack Hassan's rivals in press statements.

"Hassan is the party's executive chairman, and as such is the only person empowered to amend the party's internal statutes," Dawoud told the independent daily Nahdet Misr. "To assume this new post Ashour has to get Hassan's approval first."

In response Ashour threatened to call for another general conference to be held. The conflict became even more tangled when Dawoud issued a statement claiming Ashour's membership of the party was suspended in 2002, the year Hassan became secretary-general.

Leading party members then stepped in as mediators, organising a meeting between Ashour and Dawoud at the Damietta branch of the Bar Association.

The meeting managed to melt the ice. "I consider Ashour a cherished son," said Dawoud, who pledged to respect the will of party members during the coming elections. The date of those elections, however, has not been set.