Conference call

The NDP begins preparations for its November conference against the backdrop of the highest inflation rates in 16 years, Gamal Essam El-Din reports

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Gamal Mubarak, Zakaria Azmi and Safwat El-Sherif during the party's conference last year

Leaders of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) are busy preparing the agenda of their fifth annual conference, due to be held between 1 and 3 November.

NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif says a difficult set of challenges means that this year early preparation is essential. Topping the list of the party's priorities, he said, would be discussing ways of alleviating the pressure of inflation on the poor and those with limited incomes.

Last week it was announced that the national consumer price index rose 23 per cent in July, the highest jump in 16 years. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) blamed the leap on an annual increase of 32.5 per cent in food prices. CBE said Egypt's inflation was under control at the start of the year but then began to surge in March as a result of the hike in international prices of foodstuffs, particularly wheat, of which Egypt is a major importer.

NDP leaders are worried that inflation will damage the image of the party and could lead to a new wave of political protests and industrial unrest. Ahmed El-Naggar, an economic analyst at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS), believes that party officials, who regularly boast of economic reforms leading to a growth rate of 7.5 per cent and rising foreign investment, are now concerned that the benefits have yet to trickle down to working Egyptians. "They are sensitive to the fact that the opposition always eagerly exploits this, charging that the NDP is out-of-touch with the majority of Egyptians."

Social justice, El-Naggar notes, was the buzz phrase of last year's NDP conference and it is likely to remain so as long as skyrocketing food prices and record inflation continue to hit the majority of Egyptians, 45 per cent of whom live on $2 a day or less.

El-Sherif says that the main debates of November's conference will focus on ensuring that continuing liberal economic reforms and the privatisation programme do not hit Egypt's poor. He argued that the new food subsidy system -- forged by both the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and senior NDP officials -- had successfully contained bread shortages and brought the prices of basic foodstuffs under control.

Mustafa El-Said, NDP MP and chairman of the People's Assembly Economic Committee, claims that the ration card system, which now covers almost 20 million citizens, has been instrumental in containing public anger over the price of food.

"I think there will be a lot of praise for this system in the next NDP conference and calls for expanding it to include more citizens," he said. "The drop in oil and wheat prices on international markets will help the government in expanding the food subsidy programme." And that, he argued, could give the government of Nazif a new lease of life.

Recent rifts within the party are also expected to reappear during the conference. Before the People's Assembly adjourned in June, Ahmed Ezz, a steel magnate and NDP secretary for organisational affairs, clashed with Minister of Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid over new anti-monopoly regulations. Ezz got his way, leading to accusations that the NDP prioritises the interests of already hugely rich businessmen over the general public.

Gamal Mubarak, the 45-year-old son of President Hosni Mubarak and chairman of the NDP's influential Policies Committee, entered the fray, suggesting in a recent meeting that, "the NDP is not a party for businessmen but rather a party that supports investment".

He stressed that laws and policies adopted by the party in recent years aimed to serve the public and "not the personal interests of a handful of businessmen". Mubarak argued that, "it is natural for a large political party to contain factions and there is nothing wrong with this."

Four issues will dominate the agenda of the NDP's fifth annual conference, said Mubarak: containing inflationary pressures, supporting investment and employment policies, implementing more social justice programmes and harnessing Egypt's foreign relations to help tackle domestic issues. Mubarak said the restructuring of the energy sector, especially through investing in nuclear power, and improving the performance of agriculture, industry and the service sector, will also be discussed at the conference. He also revealed that the conference will debate two new pieces of legislation, one seeking to overhaul the election system, the other setting new regulations for professional syndicates.

El-Sherif says the party is reviewing several suggestions for scrapping the current individual candidacy system in favour of a collective -- or slate -- system.

"Some suggest that a collective system allows women and high-calibre professionals who do not have the money and effort to contest elections under the individual candidacy a greater chance of winning seats," said El-Sherif.

Gamal Mubarak indicated that decentralising municipal councils would also be high on the conference's political agenda.