Al-Ahram Weekly Issue No. 242 12 - 18 October 1995
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

Determined to win

Kamal El-Shazli is a veteran politician who has occupied a parliamentary seat for a record period - from 1964 until the present. During this time, he has been a leading member of all ruling political parties in succession. In the late 1960s, he was chosen to serve as the local secretary-general of the Arab Socialist Union - then the nation's sole political party - in the Governorate of Menoufiya.

When President Anwar El-Sadat allowed the establishment of Al-Manaber (political forums) in 1976 as a step toward a multi-party system, El-Shazli joined the "centre forum" which later became the Arab Socialist Misr Party, led by then Prime Minister Mamdouh Salem. Two years later, El-Shazli was one of about 250 personalities who quit the Misr Party to join the National Democratic Party (NDP) upon its establishment by Sadat.

In the same year, 1978, he was appointed by Sadat as the NDP's assistant secretary-general and also secretary for organisational affairs, a post which he still occupies today.

In 1993, he joined the cabinet for the first time, as minister of state for parliamentary affairs. In the following interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, El-Shazli speaks about the NDP's plans for the parliamentary elections.

What preparations are the NDP making for the approaching elections, and what does the party's list of candidates look like?

It was only recently that the NDP's general secretariat completed the examination of all requests for nomination submitted by NDP members to the party's local secretariats in all 26 governorates. Because we received so many requests, we decided to submit the final list, which included more than one candidate for some seats, to President Mubarak so that he may take the final decision.

The NDP's final list includes 444 candidates contesting seats in the nation's 222 constituencies, demonstrating our determination to win a vast majority in the next parliament.

Between 40 and 45 per cent of the names on the NDP list are not members of the outgoing People's Assembly. This is a policy which we began enforcing in the 1987 elections, when newcomers amounted to 50 per cent of candidates and in 1990 elections, when they amounted to 68 per cent.

The criteria for choosing NDP candidates are a good reputation, hard work and commitment to the party. Members of the outgoing Assembly who are running for re-election were chosen on the basis of their record - the services they extended to their constituents and, more importantly, their effective participation in parliamentary debates and the legislative process.

In previous elections, numerous NDP members who were not nominated by the party ran as independents against official NDP candidates, and managed to win seats in parliament. Yet the NDP has re-accepted them into parliamentary ranks. How do you explain this apparent contradiction?

Let us recall the NDP's conduct in the recent Shura Council elections. In these elections, those who violated party commitment were dismissed from the party. Let me emphasise that this is a basic rule that will be strictly applied in the coming parliamentary elections. I hope that all NDP members will observe this rule; whoever runs independently or outside the party's framework will lose membership.

Some reports suggest that the delay in releasing the NDP list was due to differences over the nomination of cabinet ministers and also to disagreements between governors and the NDP's local secretariats on the choice of candidates. Is this true?

As for the nomination of ministers, we already have eight ministers who have seats on the Shura Council; 12 others expressed the wish to run in the coming parliamentary elections.

We decided to leave the matter in President Mubarak's hands. The same applies to differences between governors and the local NDP secretariats.

With many businessmen running for election, money is expected to play a major role in the election battle. What is your assessment?

It is true that some businessmen believe that money could swing things in their favour, but my personal conviction is that money can only play a very limited role. In the recent Shura Council elections, some businessmen spent millions of pounds and yet failed. On the NDP list we have businessmen with good reputations. The criteria for choosing them was the contribution they made to launching development projects that help reduce unemployment.

NDP opponents claim the party has failed to fill the political vacuum either because it failed to device new strategies for dealing with Egypt's problems or because it did not raise a new generation of political cadres?

It is common knowledge that political parties throughout the world are based on a principal political figure and a clear ideology that is reflected in the party's programme of action. Over the last 17 years, NDP membership rose from around 7,000 in 1978 to a million in 1992 and then to around three million in 1995.

To me, this increase is due to the fact that the NDP represents the centrist ideology which is the mainstream in Egyptian politics. Egyptian society is in favour of this ideology because it rejects extremism either to the left or the right.

However, this does not mean that viewpoints are not varied or diverse inside the NDP. In fact, this centrist ideology brackets the centre, right and left of centre and this has been clearly reflected in many parliamentary debates.

I concede that the NDP has not been able to fill the political vacuum in some sectors, especially in the professional syndicates. But we have made preparations for strong election campaigns of young people well versed in all aspects of political action.

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