The NDP's closely-guarded list of parliamentary candidates has finally been released. It's full of surprises, reports Gamal Essam El-Din Kamal El-Shazli Soraya Labina Zakaria Azmi Amal Othman Following extensive delays, the National Democratic Party (NDP) announced that it would be fielding 444 candidates in the nation's 222 constituencies during the forthcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled to begin on 9 November. NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif made the announcement just a few hours before Saturday's deadline for submitting nomination applications with the Interior Ministry. The delay was hardly unexpected, considering the complications surrounding the NDP's list. The primary problem was that nearly 2700 party members wanted to be on the official ticket. That meant, El-Sherif said, that almost 2256 of them had their hopes dashed. Around 70 per cent of the party's would-be candidates have since announced that they will run as independents, regardless of the NDP's threat to expel them from the party if they do so. That dynamic ensures that, once again, parliamentary elections will feature a confusing situation involving "NDP-independents" running against official NDP candidates in a lot of constituencies. Thirty-five per cent (or 176) of the names on the NDP's list are newcomers, El-Sherif said, compared to the 42 per cent who ran last time, in 2000. Two- hundred-and-fifty of the party's outgoing parliamentarians are on the list; 130 did not make it. The biggest surprise was that three cabinet ministers who were aiming to run -- Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieddin, Education Minister Ahmed Gamaleddin Moussa, and Local Administration Minister Abdel-Rehim Shehata -- were left off the list. Mohieddin, who wanted to run in the Qalyoubiya Governorate's Kafr Shukr district, opted to withdraw so as not to compete against his uncle Khaled Mohieddin, leader of the leftist Tagammu Party. The party's electoral colleges, meanwhile, rejected Moussa and Shehata. As a result, the party is now nominating just six cabinet ministers out of nine who applied. Five of the nominated ministers are members of the outgoing assembly. They are: Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal El-Shazli, who is running in Al-Menoufiya Governorate's Al-Bagour district; Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali, who is running for a seat in the northern Cairo district of Shubra; Military Production Minister Sayed Mashaal, who is running in the southern Cairo suburb of Helwan; Housing Minister Ibrahim Soliman, who is running in Fatimid Cairo's Al-Gamaliya district; and Irrigation Minister Mahmoud Abu Zeid, who is running in the Delta Governorate of Al-Gharbiya's Nahtai district. Agriculture Minister Ahmed El-Leithi will be contesting elections for the first time. Meanwhile, former Agriculture Minister Youssef Wali, who is a member of the outgoing assembly, will also be running. Wali -- who is the NDP's deputy chairman for internal affairs -- was nominated despite being an ongoing target of opposition press campaigns accusing him of corruption. In the lead up to the announcement, speculation abounded regarding how many of the party's "old guard" members would make the list. Quite a few did, including Fathi Sorour, who has been the parliamentary speaker since 1990. Running in South Cairo's Sayeda Zeinab district, Sorour was sharply attacked by the opposition for amending Article 76 of the constitution in a way that strips independent and opposition candidates of any chance to compete in presidential elections. Sorour's two veteran deputies -- Amal Othman and El-Sayed Rashed -- were also nominated for, respectively, the Giza Governorate's Doqqi and Alexandria's Sidi Gaber district seats. The re-nominations of Sorour, Othman and Rashed are a clear indicator that the party does not aim to change the leadership of the next assembly. Other old guard candidates include: Zakaria Azmi, chief of presidential staff, running in eastern Cairo's Al-Zeitoun district; Hamdi El-Sayed, chairman of the Doctors' Syndicate, running in eastern Cairo's Heliopolis district; Mohamed Abdellah, president of Alexandria University, running in Alexandria's Montaza district; and Mostafa El-Fiqi, chairman of the outgoing assembly's foreign affairs committee, running in Al-Beheira Governorate's Damanhour district. Amr Hashem Rabie, a parliamentary analyst with Al-Ahram's Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, believes that the biggest surprise about the NDP's list is that there was no real change at all. "This is a big victory for the old guard," Rabie said, "since the main pillars that the regime has depended on to manipulate parliamentary and political life in favour of NDP governments remained in place." As long as these figures remain in the assembly, said Rabie, it will be very difficult to fulfill President Hosni Mubarak's presidential campaign pledge to enhance the powers of parliament or create more lively parliamentary politics. "All of these figures will do their best to maintain the status quo, primarily aiming to safeguard their entrenched interests and privileges." Rabie also discredits the argument that 35 per cent of the NDP's candidates are "new faces. A lot of them were members of the pre-2000 parliament, which actually represents another success for the old guard," he said. The NDP also seems to have come through with its promise to nominate relatives of those MPs who were forced by the outgoing assembly to submit their resignations, on the grounds of having not done their military service. The only good thing about the list, Rabie said, is that it did not include the party officials who led the attacks against women demonstrators during last May's referendum. Some were surprised by the fact that Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali is the only Coptic NDP official on the list, compared to three in 2000. The number of women on the list also dropped from 11 in 2000 to a mere five, all of whom are members of the outgoing assembly. They are: Amal Othman, running in Doqqi (Giza); Fayda Kamel, running in Al-Khalifa (Southern Cairo); Soraya Labina, running in Nasr City (eastern Cairo), Farida El-Zomor, running in Kerdasah (Giza); and Fayza El-Tahnawi, running in the Upper Egyptian Governorate of Al-Minya. NDP businessmen seem to be the biggest winners, with nearly 30 on the list, 25 of whom are members of the outgoing assembly. The most prominent in greater Cairo are: Hossam Badrawi (Qasr Al-Nil); Hani Sorour (Al-Daher); Talaat El-Qawwas (Abdeen), Mohamed Morshidi (Maadi); Mostafa El-Sallab (Nasr City); Mamdouh Thabet Mekki (Al-Manial); Mohamed Abul-Enein (Giza); and Mansour Amer (Al-Qanatir). Topping the list in Alexandria are: Ahmed Abu Ismail, chairman of the Union of Chambers of Commerce (Al-Raml); Tarek Talaat Mostafa (Sidi Gaber); and Khaled Khairi (Attareen).
