Former NDP leaders hurt SCAF left them out of meetings and deals

Leaders of newly established parties, formerly associated with Mubarak's NDP, are upset that SCAF did not invite them to recent consultation meetings with political operatives

Heads of newly formed parties previously associated with the dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP) are stressing their disappointment at not receiving an invitation to the meeting held between Sami Anan, the army's chief of staff and deputy head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), military officers and political party leaders.
After a meeting at the Freedom Party's offices, located in Heliopolis, Cairo, said that they support public calls for laws against those who contributed to political corruption in the country in the previous era.
However, in a statement they issued, the former NDP members argued that no party regardless of its political weight or ideology should be disenfranchised. Furthermore, they accused the ruling military council of the same political selectivity and marginalisation tactics which were characteristic of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's regime.
Among the parties in attendance were the Freedom Party, the Egyptian Citizen Party and the Egyptian Youth Party, all formed in recent months.
They also said they object to the military denying any Egyptian citizen their political rights without judicial justification, which they said is a violation of the constitution and the rights of political participation. They also called for everyone, in light of recent revolutionary events, to work to achieve social justice and respect the law.
The party leaders added that they aim to only use political pressure to prevent passage of any treason laws, which they described as a way to monopolise Parliament and exclude specific parties, thus crippling political freedoms in the process.