Dialogue continues

IN A NEW round of preparatory talks leading up to a national dialogue on political and economic reforms, leading NDP figures Safwat El-Sherif and Kamal El-Shazli held meetings with the chairmen of three opposition parties. On 4 November they met with Arab Nasserist Party Chairman Diaaeddin Dawoud, and on Monday, with Al-Umma and Democratic Union parties' chairmen Ahmed El-Sabahi and Mohamed Turk.

An NDP statement announced that the leaders of the three opposition parties agreed with the NDP that there is a pressing need to reform the Electoral Law (No 73/1956), and the Political Parties Law (No 70/1977) in order to open the door for more political liberalisation and reach a charter of honour on electoral campaigning.

Following these preliminary talks, the statement said, a general meeting between NDP leaders and the chairmen of all the opposition parties will be held to determine the agenda for the national dialogue, which is expected to begin next month. NDP Chairman President Hosni Mubarak invited opposition parties to this dialogue at the end of the NDP's first annual conference last September.

The preliminary meetings, however, have featured disagreements between the NDP and opposition parties regarding the prioritising of political reforms. Dawoud said the gulf between the opposition parties and the NDP is still wide. "We will see, during the upcoming meetings, how serious the NDP is about reducing this gulf," Dawoud said. The opposition is calling for amending the constitution, placing elections under complete judicial supervision, and repealing the Emergency Law.

Tycoon in trouble

PROSECUTOR-General Maher Abdel-Wahed decided on 6 November to refer Mustafa El-Beleidi, a prominent businessman whose name was widely associated with manufacturing international cosmetics brands, to trial before the Cairo Criminal Court. El-Beleidi is charged with illegally obtaining LE200 million in loans from several state-owned banks. Abdel-Wahed indicated that three banking officials -- Hassan Samir, former chairman of the Cairo-Paris Bank; Mohamed Gaber, former chairman of the Islamic Bank, and Bahaa El-Ghazali, a general manager with Banque Du Caire -- also face charges of allegedly helping El-Beleidi illegally acquire the loans in exchange for hefty commissions.

El-Beleidi, who is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence on a similar conviction, fled Egypt in 1999 to dodge LE185 million in unpaid loans to five banks: Misr Bank, Banque Du Caire, the National Bank of Egypt, the Commercial International Bank, and the Egyptian American Bank. He returned to Egypt earlier this year, and was immediately imprisoned.

Road tragedy

THIRTEEN people were killed and another 62 injured on Tuesday when a speeding bus burst a tyre and collided with another bus going in the opposite direction. Twenty of the injured are in critical condition.

The bus that burst a front tyre was a public transportation vehicle carrying about 40 passengers. It collided with a private company's staff bus carrying 55 passengers. The driver of the private bus was killed and the public bus driver is in critical condition. Police said the passengers who fared best were those sitting in the rear seats. The accident took place in the Cairo suburb of Maadi.

On Monday, another 13 people were killed and 48 injured in accidents on roads that were made slippery by rain.

Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 13 - 19 November 2003 (Issue No. 664)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/664/eg8.htm