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NDP elections kick off

REGISTRATION for elections within the ruling National Democratic Party opened on Sunday, reports Gamal Essam El-Din.

NDP elections will be held between 23 July and 15 August. The elections, which are to be held every two years, will feature as many as 900,000 party members vying for positions in 6,662 grassroots units in towns and districts. In each unit, the party members, via secret ballot, will elect 20 seats, one of which is reserved for a woman and the other for a young male candidate.

Registration opened on 12 June and will continue for one week. NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif said the poll was part of a sustained rejuvenation effort as well as serious reforms of the NDP's internal structure. "The role of these elections is to inject new blood into the party's ranks and prepare a new generation of young leaders capable of running in municipal and parliamentary elections and tackling the problems of ordinary citizens," said El-Sherif, adding that the candidates "should be characterised by a good reputation, popularity and a sense of leadership."

Ahmed Ezz, the NDP's secretary for organisational affairs, said women were encouraged to participate in the elections. "This is a long-term philosophy of the NDP and it bore fruit in the fact that NDP women now fill eight per cent of the seats in elected municipal councils," said Ezz. As for Christian Copts, Ezz said they had representatives in 90 per cent of the NDP's grassroots levels and are being encouraged to compete in all levels of the party's internal elections.

Meanwhile, El-Sherif announced that the NDP's four-day annual conference will be held on 30 October. He said 2,923 party members were expected to participate in the conference whose agenda will be formulated next week by the party's higher council for policies led by Gamal Mubarak.

Mufti against Al-Wafd

MUFTI Ali Gomaa has filed a complaint to the prosecutor general and the Press Syndicate against the daily Al-Wafd for alleging that he was engaged in money laundering activities through a private computer company. The paper identified the company as Tridigital, which it claimed belonged to Gomaa.

The opposition paper published a front page story in its weekly edition on 9 July by staff writer Adel Sabri. It was headlined, 'The republic's grand mufti runs an organisation that receives millions of dollars in donations from foreign entities'. A subtitle said, 'Money laundering unit detected the donations process in banks in Switzerland and England.'

The initial story was followed by two more articles in consecutive issues of Al-Wafd on Friday and Saturday, but without publishing the name of the authority that reportedly discovered the alleged money laundering. It also failed to mention why there was no action taken against the mufti if the operations were monitored by the authorities.

At a press conference on Saturday Gomaa denied the story, saying he sent the newspaper an official response rejecting all its accusations, but that the newspaper did not publish his reply.

Gomaa, who emphasised he is against taking journalists to court, said the reporter who wrote the story had "damaged his honour and should be held responsible for his actions. However, if the newspaper is willing to publish a retraction and an apology, I will forgive him."

Gomaa also sent an official complaint to head of the Press Syndicate Makram Mohamed Ahmed, attaching documents proving the allegations false. "I have sent this official memo to the syndicate because they usually complain that we do not complain to the syndicate," Gomaa said.

Ahmed confirmed he had received the complaint and had personally spoken to Gomaa. He said he had agreed Al-Wafd should retract its "false accusations" according to the official documents the mufti sent with his complaint.

SMS spreads swine flu

"WASH your hands frequently with soap and water."

"Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth."

"Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you sneeze or cough."

These are among the messages the Ministry of Health is sending to mobile subscribers to increase the public's awareness of the H1N1 virus. According to Abdel-Rahman Shahin, the official spokesman of the Ministry of Health, the campaign aims at reaching four million subscribers in a matter of six days at a daily rate of 100,000 SMS.

The number of infected cases of swine flu has reached 102 in Egypt. Ninety per cent of the cases have been dismissed from hospital while the remainder are still under medical treatment and are responding to the only known antiviral medication Tamiflu. "There are only three cases in the world that showed resistance to Tamiflu so it is very rare. They appear to be sporadic cases," Shahin said. "Here in Egypt, all the cases that were treated with the drug responded perfectly to it."

In the same context and due the escalating number of swine flu victims, Cairo Governor Abdel-Azim Wazir on Sunday banned the annual celebration of the birth of Sayeda Zeinab (the Prophet Mohamed's granddaughter). The decision was based upon recommendations by the Health Ministry, the Doctors' Syndicate, representatives of the Ministry of Religious Endowments and the World Health Organisation that crowds were conducive to spreading disease, including the poorly ventilated Sayeda Zeinab district. The media relations department at the Cairo governorate listed the measures that will be taken to ensure the implementation of the decision. "The Cairo governor has instructed security bodies and the Ministry of Endowments to break up large gatherings, ban the establishment of food stalls and limit celebrations to praying inside the mosque."