The NDP is seeking to woo a sceptical public, both at home and abroad, reports Dina Ezzat Security measures will be intensified in Cairo today. Abdel-Khaleq Tharwat Street -- on which the Press Syndicate, the Bar Association and the Judges' Club are located -- Cairo University and Al-Azhar are all expected to see a massive police presence in anticipation of the demonstrations that have become a routine Friday event in recent few weeks. Protesters are expected to demonstrate against the regime's foot-dragging over promises for political reform with the amendment of Article 76 of the constitution being a central complaint. The amendment, rubber-stamped by the government controlled People's Assembly and Shura Council, is, say opposition forces, no more than democratic window-dressing, and makes it virtually impossible for any candidate to challenge the incumbent. Critics further complain that the constitutional amendment has been tailored to suit Gamal Mubarak -- the son of the president and chair of the NDP's Policy Secretariat. "No one," says Cairo University political science professor Moustafa Kamel El-Sayed "can accept this as a genuine reform measure". "The amendment is an embarrassing text. It contradicts the basic concept of equality central to the Egyptian constitution and discriminates between members of political parties and independent political figures in terms of the guarantees required for their candidacy," says Nabil Abdel-Fattah, political commentator and researcher at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. The president's 26 February proposal, the subsequent campaign and now this "dull, clumsy and confused text" are, says Abdel-Fattah, no more than the opening shots in the regime's PR campaign to secure "a new term for President Hosni Mubarak in office or to promote his son Gamal Mubarak as a potential replacement". The regime continues to shrug off these and other complaints. Despite statements attributed earlier in the week to President Mubarak suggesting that "if Gamal runs now for the presidential post it could not be considered an act of succession" the official stand is to deny that Gamal Mubarak has any plans to present himself as a candidate. His hands are, in any case, full as he, along with President Mubarak and Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, attempts to convince a sceptical public, both at home and abroad, that the amendment of Article 76 is a concrete step towards further democratisation. Attempts by the three to convince the public -- and Washington -- to downplay criticisms of Egypt's ruling regime were recently reinforced by the president's senior political adviser, Ossama El-Baz, who branded Mubarak's critics as "impolite" and "insensitive". "The amendment of Article 76 of the constitution provides a qualitative move in the political process related to the election of the president of the republic," Gamal Mubarak said this week. "Political reform in Egypt will proceed un-hindered. More electoral reforms are in store." In Washington Nazif attempted to contain US criticisms over the level and pace of reform. Nazif, say Egyptian sources, told the Americans practically everything they wanted to hear. In public statements, and behind closed doors, he promised his hosts that Cairo will do everything in its power to promote stability in occupied Palestinian territories and to convince Palestinian resistance movements to refrain from attacking Israeli targets. He also promised to speed up economic liberalisation, though bearing in mind that 2005 is an election year and that some of the more divisive economic policies for which the US is pressing -- including a more aggressive privatisation scheme incorporating some public services -- would have to wait. Nazif, sources suggest, also promised his American interlocutors that Cairo would not adopt any public positions that might embarrass Washington over Iraq, Iran or other regional issues. Nazif also said his government is not opposed to reputable international observers monitoring the elections if the public accepts such monitoring. "Reform is a predominantly Egyptian championed cause... and reform cannot be pursued in an isolationist context... Egypt has no complexes and has nothing to hide... There is an international tendency to allow for the monitoring of elections and the issue could be subject to public debate. But Egypt will not accept any intervention," said Moustafa El-Fiqi, chair of the People's Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee. Meanwhile, the Egyptian Embassy in Washington has increased its networking, contacting officials and media figures in an attempt to limit anti-Egyptian sentiments, while senior Egyptian officials have held unpublicised meetings with their American counterparts in an attempt to secure the Bush administration's support for the regime. "We really believe we enjoy a great deal of public support despite the signs of anger demonstrated here and there," said a member of the NDP's current PR campaign. There are, said the source, plenty of signs to contradict opposition claims that Washington has given up on the regime. "They may want to believe it but it isn't true. We have our differences but we still have a solid relationship with the US." El-Sayed agrees. "There are no signs that Washington has decided to give up Egypt's regime. The Americans still have no liberal alternative they can trust. They still support President Mubarak though Gamal Mubarak is still not an option for the Americans. I cannot see any signs of them opting for Gamal -- yet." The exclusion of Shura Council Speaker and the NDP Secretary General Safwat El-Sherif, and his deputy Kamal El-Shazli, minister of state for the People's Assembly, from the PR campaign of the ruling regime both on the national and international fronts, is intended, says one informed official, to send a message to the public, both domestic and foreign, that the regime is determined to part with those perceived as "unpleasant faces of the past". It is likely to take more than a change of cast, though, for the regime to win widespread approval. "The trouble with this campaign is its aggressive and confused approach," says Abdel-Fattah. "One day they say it is not acceptable to allow international monitors and the next day it is OK. One day they tell us that demonstrations are a sign of democracy and the next they say that those who demonstrate are collaborators. This confusion is disturbing because it means that at some point the regime may loose its temper and act aggressively against its opponents."
