A leading member of Gamal Mubarak's influential Policies Committee submitted his resignation from the ruling party. Gamal Essam El-Din reports on the unprecedented move After three-and-a-half years of active membership, Al-Ahram political analyst Osama El-Ghazali Harb took observers by surprise by submitting his resignation from the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and its influential Policies Committee led by Gamal Mubarak. In two letters submitted to Gamal Mubarak and NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif on Sunday, El-Ghazali said his hopes that the Policies Committee take a leading role in democratic change had been entirely dashed. "This was quite clear in the undemocratic way in which Article 76 of the constitution was amended," said El-Ghazli. El-Ghazli, an appointed member of the Shura Council, strongly opposed the amendment of Article 76, which allowed for the country's first multi- candidate presidential elections, calling it a democratic setback. He also asserted that instead of inspiring change, the Policies Committee had turned into a "talk shop." "I was appointed to this committee and I thought it would be the country's locomotive for reform but this proved to be incorrect, "El-Ghazli said. In the future, El-Ghazli added, he would prefer forming a new party that would include a group of prestigious political reformers than staying in the NDP. "This," he argued, "can lead the country towards democratic change and fill the political vacuum. "There should be a strong secular political party that can strike a balance between the Muslim Brotherhood and the NDP," El-Ghazali added. El-Ghazli described the ruling NDP as "the old Soviet Communist Party that failed to adjust to changes and ultimately caused the downfall of the Soviet Union." Meanwhile, the NDP held another one-day conference on Saturday seeking to forge closer ties between council members and the government. As part of its preparations for next year's mid- term Shura Council elections the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) held a one-day conference on Saturday. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and NDP leading Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif both attended the four sessions of the conference, as did several cabinet ministers. The NDP's one-day conference is the second in three weeks. The first meeting aimed at forging closer links between the government and NDP deputies in the People's Assembly while the second sought to define common ground between the government and NDP members of the Shura Council. "As everyone knows," said El-Sherif, "the NDP has two wings, with the government on one side and the Shura Council and the People's Assembly on the other." El-Sherif stressed the importance of these two wings of the party conducting an open dialogue in order to agree on policies and inform one another of their priorities. "And we hope this dialogue will bear fruit before the NDP enters next year's mid-term Shura Council elections," said El-Sherif. The party's poor performance in last year's parliamentary elections, El-Sherif argued, was because the benefits of economic reform have yet to be felt by a majority of citizens. "We do not want this to be repeated in Shura Council elections," said El-Sherif. While the government will shoulder responsibility for implementing the economic programme of President Hosni Mubarak's presidential elections platform, MPs in the People's Assembly and Shura Council -- the majority members of the NDP -- will be entrusted with proposing legislative and constitutional reforms. Addressing the conference, Nazif outlined to NDP Shura Council members his government's economic priorities. Topping the list, said Nazif, is the fight against unemployment. In his elections programme President Mubarak promised that 4.5 million jobs would be created in the next six years. To achieve such an ambitious target, said Nazif, the government was seeking to boost investment rates to the extent that they can generate a growth rate of more than seven per cent. "Statistics for the first quarter of the new fiscal year [August-October 2005] show average growth of 6.1 per cent which," said Nazif, will help create 200,000 jobs in small-scale enterprises. The figure falls short of the targets set in President Mubarak's electoral programme. According to NDP Assistant Secretary-General Zakaria Azmi as many as 750,000 jobs need to be created every year. "It is essential for the NDP that this objective be achieved before next year's Shura Council elections," insisted Azmi. In response Nazif told the conference that the government is confident that the targets can be met on the back of anticipated investments flowing into Egypt from the Arab world. In order to encourage such investment, said Nazif, a law allowing investment disputes to be settled before special courts had been drafted as part of government attempts to furnish a more friendly investment environment. Nazif also stressed the government's commitment to improving public services, with the emphasis on completing sewage and potable water projects and improving the quality of educational and health services. Drainage and water projects could cost the government up to LE30 billion. Direct subsidies, he said, remain one of the government's biggest headaches. "One case in point," said Nazif, "is that in the current fiscal year the government had to raise energy subsidies from LE22 billion to LE41 billion. Although this increase was offset by increased oil exports the government cannot go on offering it indefinitely." Nazif concluded by detailing the financial and monetary reforms -- including reductions in tax custom tariffs -- that in the past two years had allowed the government to kick-start the economy out of recession. Constitutional reform was also on the conference agenda. Deputies in the People's Assembly and members of the Shura Council are currently submitting proposals on constitutional reform, revealed El-Sherif, covering key issues including reinforcing the supervisory powers of the People's Assembly and Shura Council, drafting a new elections law and creating a better balance between the powers of the executive and those of the president. Future legislation, El-Sherif continued, is likely to include greater decentralisation as local councils are granted more powers, the elimination of the role of the socialist prosecutor-general and the ethics court and the replacement of the emergency law with Western-style anti-terror legislation. Gamal Mubarak, chairman of the NDP's Policies Committee, said anti-terror legislation was currently being drafted, along with a law limiting the time defendants can be remanded into custody. Addressing the NDP's general committee on Monday, Mubarak said "the two bills will soon be presented to the government for discussion and then to parliament." The NDP's economic and constitutional reforms, he said, would be central in changing the face of Egypt in the next six years.
