Democratic benchmark
The NDP's attempts to hold competitive elections for party posts elicit mixed reactions in political circles, writes Gamal Essam El-Din
Senior officials of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) this week praised the party's internal elections. NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif said on Tuesday that the chairman, President Hosni Mubarak, was satisfied with the result of the first phase of the process. "President Mubarak has said he is happy, the first two weeks of the party's internal elections have been marked by impartiality and competition," said El-Sherif, adding that, "President Mubarak said that he would pay this stage of elections particular attention since it is leaders elected at the grassroots level that are entrusted with dealing with the problems of ordinary citizens and standing up against extremist trends."
El-Sherif said he had discussed a detailed report on the first two weeks of the elections with Mubarak on Monday.
By 10 September, more than 150,000 positions in 7,555 units at the village and shiakhas (parts of district) levels will have been filled. "The elections," said El-Sherif, "have already seen 36,419 party members in 2,450 units vying to fill more than 50,000 positions, 25 seats being allocated to each village or shiakha." El-Sherif added that 132,494 party members had participated in voting so far. Elections in 157 units, however, have been postponed. Among the reasons for the delay, said El-Sherif, was the uncovering of irregularities as candidates sought to stand unopposed.
"We gave strict orders that there should be competition and that the party would refuse to accept candidates standing unopposed," said El-Sherif, who also revealed that some districts had nor met the quorum of 30 per cent of party members for elections to be judged valid.
Despite these irregularities, El-Sherif expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the elections. "They have led to a change in faces. Almost half of the winning candidates are new, injecting fresh blood into the party's ranks. A major aim of the elections is to open up leading positions to new and dynamic young people," he said.
El-Sherif denied rumours that members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood had infiltrated NDP ranks to stand in several governorates, including Damietta, Gharbiya and Sharqiya. "These rumours are baseless and there is no truth whatsoever in claims that the party informed the state security of the names of Brotherhood infiltrators... The NDP is not a police station or a military unit. It is a party that opens its doors to all citizens, including those who abandon their membership of outlawed groups in favour of joining the ruling party."
Other party leaders were eager to heap praise on the conduct of the party's internal elections. Gamal Mubarak, President Mubarak's 44-year-old son and chairman of the NDP's powerful Policies Committee, addressing party members in Port Said on 22 August said the message contained in the current elections is that the ruling party is serious about reform.
"The elections have created a new philosophy. Henceforth competition rather than personal relationships will become the main avenue to leadership posts within the NDP," said Gamal Mubarak. He emphasised that the poll is part of a long-term process of reform that began in 2002.
Gamal Mubarak met university students in Alexandria on Tuesday. The event has raised eyebrows among opposition parties since in previous years university students have ended their summer camps in Alexandria with a question-and-answer session with President Mubarak. President Mubarak stopped holding such meetings following the presidential elections of 2005.
In his meeting with students, Gamal Mubarak discussed many issues, among which were the NDP plans for a draft law regulating the position of university students. The opposition predicts that the regulations will attempt to impose a ban on a range of political activities on university campuses. Gamal Zahran, an independent MP and professor of political science, believes that it was the sight of students taking part in military- style parades at Al-Azhar University last December that prompted NDP leaders to seek new laws regulating campuses.
In opposition to the carefully orchestrated enthusiasm for internal elections among the NDP's senior ranks, the deputy supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Habib, characterises the whole process as "a cosmetic tactic" lacking substance. "These elections are just a kind of internal power struggle in which the young wing led by Gamal Mubarak aims to rid the party of its old guard members," says Habib. There are reports that Ahmed Ezz, the steel tycoon and Gamal Mubarak's right-hand man, gave orders that members loyal to his predecessor, Kamal El-Shazli, should be expelled from the party's ranks.
Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, the leftist Tagammu Party's secretary for indoctrination affairs, pours scorn on suggestions that the NDP elections set a democratic benchmark for opposition parties. "The Tagammu, Wafd and Nasserists were the first to democratise their internal structures in terms of competitive elections," said Shukr. "Press reports show that the NDP elections are rife with fraud, vote buying and violent clashes."
Not so, Alieddin Hilal, the NDP's secretary for information, tells Al-Ahram Weekly. The NDP's internal elections, he insists, are the first of their kind "and it is only to be expected that members will find it difficult to adjust to democratic rules after long years of no competition and close personal relationships".
Hilal argues that the elections have two goals; "they are the first test of how deeply the party has democratised after five years of reform, and also come two years after President Mubarak announced his presidential election programme in August 2005." It will be the job of the party's next congress, scheduled for 3-5 November, says Hilal, to review all these goals in the light of the results of the internal elections.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/860/fr2.htm