Mona El-Nahhas wonders whether the Tagammu Party is following the same path to self-destruction as the Wafd and Ahrar Reformist members of the Tagammu Party's Central Committee have called for a vote of no confidence to be tabled against the party chairman Rifaat El-Said and other members of the political bureau. The demand was raised during a stormy meeting held on 23 March, at which it was also suggested that a temporary committee be formed to take over the running of the party until a new leader is elected. Reformers within the Tagammu blame the current leadership for the deterioration in the party's performance. Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, a leading member of the political bureau, complains about shrinking party membership. "The Tagammu now has no real presence within the universities, syndicates and unions. And many existing members of the party now prefer to suspend their membership until the situation improves," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. According to Gouda Abdel-Khaleq, head of the party's economic committee, the Tagammu lost touch with the public after it strayed away from its traditional socialism to move closer to the regime. Abdel-Khaleq accused El-Said -- who became party chairman in 2003, -- of engineering the latest rapprochement with the government. El-Said is an appointed member of the Shura Council. The party leader has been criticised for taking unilateral decisions that have harmed the party and is blamed by many for the Tagammu's poor showing in the parliamentary elections when many of its most prominent members, including veteran politician Khaled Mohieddin, lost their seats. The party now has just two MPs. It was the dismal election performance that, says Shukr, sounded alarm bells within the party, leading many members of the Central Committee to seek to reposition the party, and reconsider many long-held positions, including its relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). Abdel-Khaleq views El-Said's repeated attacks against the group as counter- productive and one of the main reasons behind the Tagammu's lacklustre performance at the polls. He was applauded by members of the Central Committee when he demanded the party not be used as a tool in the regime's battle with the MB. The committee also recommended the party enter into dialogue with leftist forces to promote a common agenda. The party's weekly mouthpiece Al-Ahali did not escape censure. Following a large drop in circulation members of the Central Committee called for a review of editorial policy, claiming it represented El-Said's views rather than those of the party. Al-Ahali 's editor-in-chief offered to resign following the criticisms. While conceding that the party is indeed facing a crisis members of the Central Committee -- which includes 250 party leaders from different governorates -- pulled back from dismissing El-Said. Instead, party leaders have been presented with a six-months deadline to get their house in order and reconnect the party with voters. "Should they fail to reform the workings of the party within six months the Central Committee will hold an emergency meeting and ask the current leadership to submit its resignation," said Shukr. El-Said, while minimising the significance of any splits, agreed to implement a major overhaul while the Tagammu's secretary- general, Hussein Abdel-Razeq, said he was willing to resign if the necessary reforms were not implemented. Many party members remain pessimistic that the will exists to successfully overhaul the Tagammu, pointing to the 2003 party conference, which passed a number of reformist resolutions that have yet to be implemented. The Central Committee, believes Shukr, by insisting on reforms while holding back from sacking the chairman has acted to contain a situation that could potentially see the party implode in the same way as other opposition groups, most spectacularly the liberal Wafd Party. Then there is the ongoing struggle within the Ahrar Party, the chairmanship of which has been disputed since 1998. The power struggle appeared to have come to an end in January 2005 after the Political Parties Committee named Helmi Salem as chairman only to flare up again when the committee annulled that decision following a recommendation by the State Council that the committee had no mandate to interfere in the internal workings of political parties. Last Thursday MP Talaat El-Sadat, one of Salem's rivals, convened a general conference at which he claimed he had been elected as the Ahrar leader.
