Mona El-Nahhas reviews the history of the Nasserist Party and examines its future prospects A fractious history Between 1984 and 1992 Nasserist politicians were involved in a series of legal battles to set up a political party the avowed aim of which was to keep alive the spirit of socialism, Arab unity, non-alignment and anti-Zionism espoused by late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser. Kamal Ahmed sought to establish the so-called Alliance of the People's Working Forces. Farid Abdel-Karim, a former senior official with Nasser's Arab Socialist Union (ASU), tried to set up a Nasserist Arab Socialist Party. Both Ahmed and Abdel-Karim's attempts to establish a party were stymied by the Political Parties Committee, which refused to grant licences to either. Subsequent appeals to the Political Parties Tribunal and the courts led nowhere. Then in 1990 Diaaeddin Dawoud, who had also been an ASU official under Nasser, was mandated by the would-be founders of the Nasserist Arab Socialist Party to file a fresh application under a new name, the Arab Democratic Nasserist Party. The application was once again refused by the Political Parties Committee. But when Dawoud took the case to the Political Parties Tribunal it ruled in his favour, delivering its verdict in April 1992. A party congress was convened and Dawoud was elected as the party chairman. Yet even before the celebrations had died down the new party showed ominous signs of the internal squabbles that would become its hallmark. A power struggle ensued between Dawoud and Abdel-Karim. The latter claimed that party elections -- which resulted in Dawoud becoming leader -- had been rigged. Failing to oust Dawoud from his post, Abdel-Karim had no choice but to quit the party's ranks. The previous polls Against a background of ongoing divisions, the Nasserists managed to win just two seats in the 1995 parliamentary poll. Sameh Ashour and Mahmoud Zeinhom were the new party's only representatives in parliament. A year later divisions once again came to the fore when Hamdin Sabahi and Amin Iskandar quit the party along with their followers, often referred to as the 1970s generation, students who had campaigned for Nasserism on university campuses in the decade after Nasser's death. Their departure had been precipitated by Dawoud freezing the membership of Sabahi and four of his associates for a year, thereby preventing them from standing in internal party elections. Dawoud's decision provoked widespread protests among Nasserists. Zeinhom submitted his resignation from the party, leaving Ashour as the sole Nasserist MP. In 1998 the Administrative Court found that Sabahi and his colleagues had not contravened any of the party's statutes and annulled Dawoud's decision. In the meantime Sabahi had been working towards founding his own party. In 1999 he submitted an application to the Political Parties Committee to license Al-Karama (Dignity) Party. In March 2002 there was yet another defection from party ranks when Abdallah Shuhayb and his supporters obtained the approval of the Political Parties Committee for a new party, Al-Wefaq (National Conciliation). In the 2000 parliamentary polls eight Nasserist figures won seats, though only two -- Abdel-Azim El-Maghrabi and Heidar Baghdadi -- were members of the party. Both Sabahi and Kamal Ahmed were among the remaining six. El-Maghrabi managed to convince Sabahi to rejoin the Nasserist Party. A year later, in 2001, arguments between the two men and their parliamentary colleague Baghdadi had reached a point where Maghrabi and Sabahi quit the party. Dawoud began talks with El-Maghrabi in an attempt to persuade him to rejoin the party's ranks. El-Maghrabi insisted Dawoud should first expel Baghdadi, who he said had moved ever closer to the government, from the party, and make Sabahi deputy head of the Nasserist's parliamentary bloc. Baghdadi argued against the return of El-Maghrabi and Sabahi to party ranks, arguing that Sabahi remained a member of the Karama Party. In late 2003 Dawoud made a surprise decision, naming Mohamed Farid Hassanein, a former Wafdist MP and wealthy businessman, as the head of the Nasserist parliamentary bloc. Baghdadi was chosen as Hassanein's deputy. The decision provoked El-Maghrabi and Sabahi to once again resign. Within less than a year Hassanein was dismissed, having announced his approval of a parliamentary delegation visiting Israel to celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty. The party's parliamentary body had broken down. Once again Baghdadi was their only MP. In 2005 Baghdadi, too, was expelled from the party after he voted for the amendment of Article 76 of the constitution. Given the party's history of internal fighting few were surprised when, in the 2005 elections, none of its 30 candidates, who included Dawoud, managed to win a seat. Following the elections, Dawoud set about blaming everyone but himself for the party's dismal showing. Many party members left, and the Nasserist party, which at its peak had 150,000 members, was reduced to a core of a few hundred. Following the party's failure at the polls Dawoud announced his willingness to quit as chairman to allow the younger generation to take the helm of the party. A group of party members led by the Nasserists' Secretary-General Ahmed Hassan managed to convince Dawoud to backtrack on his decision. In 2006, the Party Congress re-elected Dawoud as chairman for another six years while Hassan remained in his preferred post as secretary-general. Farouk El-Ashri, a leader of the party's reform front, contested the election results before Cairo Southern Court. In 2009 the court finally ruled in his favour though the Cairo Appeals Court subsequently overruled the judgement annulling the election results. Hassan was able to tighten his grip over the party, marginalising the two deputies of the now ailing Dawoud. Dawoud's ill health, say Hassan's detractors, has given the secretary-general the carte blanche to run the party's financial affairs. The lack of accountability has meant that many donors have ceased funding the party. Deputy Chairman Ahmed El-Gammal has Dawoud continuing as party leader despite being housebound since 2007. The ageing Dawoud, says El-Gammal, is barely able to recognise longstanding colleagues, as he has played no role in running party affairs for three years. The coming polls Despite its history of poor election results the Arab Democratic Nasserist Party will field 55 candidates in November. Nasserist candidates will be contesting constituencies in 23 governorates. Six women appear on the party's list of candidates. There are no Copts. Constituency campaigns will receive no party funding. "Candidates must depend on their own resources. The party's backing will be limited to moral support," says Mohamed Abul-Ela, deputy chairman and hopeful MP. Though the party has been actively soliciting donations from wealthy symapthisers, Abul-Ela insists money will not be the decisive factor in determining the success or failure of individual campaigns. "The candidate's popularity among the public and his organisational abilities are more important than money," he argues. Self-sufficiency on a national level, social justice and defending the rights of the poor feature high on the Nasserist candidates' electoral programmes. Typically, the party has been unable to muster a unified position in the upcoming poll. its The party's reform front, formed in 2007, continues to argue the party should boycott the ballot, putting them at odds with the secretariat-general. Reformists within the party point to the absence of any guarantees that the elections will be fair and the lack of party members capable of running successful campaigns as reason enough for a boycott. "We refuse to take part in a rigged poll and lend the elections the legitimacy the government needs," says leading reformist Gomaa Hassan. Abul-Ela insists that party candidates command support among the public and stand a good chance of winning. Boycotting the ballot would, he says, mean isolating the party from the political scene at a time when Egypt's political life is in flux and throwing away a rare opportunity for the party to address the public directly. "Those who argue that our support among the public has dwindled are mistaken," says Abul-Ela. While denying suggestions that the Nasserists have entered into a deal with the regime, he is nonetheless confident that they will win "no less than 20 parliamentary seats".
