The People's Assembly adjourned its first session in the wake of divisiveness within NDP parliamentary ranks. Gamal Essam El-Din reports These have not been easy times for the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Just a few days before the People's Assembly adjourned last week for its summer recess, the party's parliamentary ranks were threatened by serious divisions and cracks. Debates over a number of key political and economic laws sparked rifts between two camps, one led by Ahmed Ezz, a high- profile business tycoon and NDP's secretary for organisational affairs, and Abdel-Ahad Gamaleddin, the famed lawyer and NDP's parliamentary spokesman joining forces with other old guard members including former economy minister Mustafa El-Said. Last week's debate over the controversial press law sparked the first internal division in NDP ranks. Article 303, which imposes prison sentences and a fine from LE15,000 to LE40,000 for questioning the financial integrity of public officials, was the first crack in NDP's wall. The article was rumoured to be the brainchild of Ezz, the subject of a hostile press campaign for more than a year. Opposition newspapers accuse Ezz of using money to lobby for his wide-scale business activities -- the most prominent of which is the local iron and steel industry -- while a large number of NDP MPs have consistently complained about Ezz's iron grip on the party's ranks. They believe that his influence stems from the fact that he is extremely close to Gamal Mubarak, the 41-year-old son of President Hosni Mubarak, and who is chairman of the NDP's influential Policies Committee. It is no secret that Ezz took charge of funding President Mubarak's presidential elections campaign, while rumours were rife in April that he paid NDP MPs hefty amounts of money (LE42,000 each) to rubber- stamp the extension of the emergency law for an additional two years. When Article 303 came up for debate last week, some NDP MPs alleged that Ezz had given orders that they rally in rejecting any amendment of the article. Ezz, rumours alleged, believes the article is necessary to help him stem the tide of scathing criticism directed against him by the opposition and independent press. He, however, was taken aback by a few old guard NDP deputies who have apparently defied him. Among them are Mustafa El-Said, a former economy minister and the current chairman of the economic affairs committee, and Mustafa El-Feki, the current chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. They objected to Article 303 which contains references to prison sentences. Ezz was dealt a defining blow when President Mubarak ordered that prison sentences in Article 303 be scrapped. Mubarak's intervention put Ezz not only under greater opposition fire, but also made him an enemy to many NDP officials and MPs. Two days later, on the final day of the parliamentary session, Ezz found himself facing a new spate of attacks. A number of NDP and opposition MPs complained to Parliamentary Speaker Fathi Sorour that they were surprised by cabinet ministers informing them that they could not approve their "recruitment requests" (requests submitted for appointing relatives and supporters of MPs in government offices) unless they were approved first by Ezz. Ezz told the paper Rose El-Youssef that his approval of requests was necessary to make sure that NDP MPs are on equal footing in obtaining services and privileges. The final day of the parliamentary session saw another serious rupture when Speaker Sorour put a draft law aimed at privatising services of the Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA) up for discussion. NDP MPs, led by spokesman Abdel-Ahad Gamaleddin and other old guard members including Kamal El-Shazli, El-Said and El-Feki, protested against the bill. Gamaleddin said he knew nothing about the law and that it should be first discussed in the party's Policies Committee. "This is a very serious law because privatisation of railway services could be very bad for poor and limited-income people and goes against Mubarak's election programme," Gamaleddin said. El-Shazli, joining forces with Gamaleddin, said, "improvements in railway services is the primary job of the government rather than the private sector." Gamaleddin, supported by the majority of NDP MPs, said the railway law "requires more debates by the NDP". As such, he proposed that its submission to the assembly be postponed to the next session. Gamaleddin's proposal was, however, met with anger from Ezz. Supported by chairman of the Transport Committee Hamdi El-Tahan and Transport Minister Mohamed Mansour, Ezz said the bill should not be postponed to the next session. "The railway authority is in urgent need of financial support and this bill will help achieve this," said Ezz, alerting the attention of MPs to the fact that ERA losses in 2005 reached LE1.8 billion. Mansour said the bill "does not mean that it allows the privatisation of the existing railway services or will lead to raising prices of train tickets. It just gives private sector investors certain concessions to build new and expensive railway tracks, particularly those planned for new housing communities around Cairo." The debates were followed by a verbal volley between Gamaleddin and Ezz. Under the initiative of Speaker Sorour, however, the bill was brought back under discussion in the Transport Committee. A slight amendment was introduced, stating that the selection of private investors should be through competitive and transparent bidding. The amendment was approved in the evening session, and only after Sorour had deplored the fact that the NDP now lacks a firm parliamentary leader and that the ruling party and the government "no longer have any kind of coordination". While touring the Upper Egypt governorate of Minya with Gamal Mubarak, Ezz said that if anything, the debates in the parliamentary session's last day showed that the NDP MPs "do not act like machines or like buttons which one can press to act in the way he likes. "The conflict and verbal clashes among NDP MPs show that they do not act upon orders and that the party's leadership allows unprecedented room for democracy and freedom," Ezz said. He argued that NDP MPs agreed that the press and railway laws be amended only after they realised the amendments go hand in hand with Mubarak's programme. During the Minya visit, Gamal Mubarak dismissed allegations that the NDP suffers from internal rifts. According to him, the relationship between the NDP and the government was one of total harmony. Mubarak and Ezz also emphasised that economic and political reforms introduced by the NDP in the last few years have already paid off. "They led to greater press freedoms, a more active political life, huge foreign exchange reserves and a tremendous increase in tax receipts," Mubarak said. Ezz said the NDP was currently in excellent shape and that it was more than ready to face any kind of elections no matter how tough.
