A new NDP-driven bill aimed at amending the political parties law got a lukewarm reaction from opposition parties. Gamal Essam El-Din reports Would-be political parties are currently dependent on the approval of the seven- member political parties committee for their very existence. A new amendment being proposed by the National Democratic Party aims to expand the committee's membership -- ostensibly to make the process of vetting political parties more fair. In a 4 August interview with Al- Ahram, NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif suggested that the current make-up of the committee (which consists of the Shura Council chairman, three former senior judges, and the ministers of interior, parliamentary affairs and justice) was unfair. Instead, he said, "this committee should be reformulated in a new way to include public figures." These would "include one opposition MP, an opposition member of the Shura Council, and an independent political analyst". El-Sherif -- who is also Shura Council chairman -- suggested that the way by which the committee licenses or rejects potential party applicants should also change. The committee's seven members, he said, should vote using a secret ballot. The proposed changes would be discussed at the NDP's second annual conference, set to take place from 21-23 September. Amendments to five other political laws are also expected. The political parties law issue arose in response to El-Sherif's appointment, last June, as the new chairman of the consultative upper house of parliament, the Shura Council. Many analysts have argued that there is a clear conflict of interest between El-Sherif's new position -- which automatically makes him the head of the Shura Council-affiliated political parties committee -- and his role as the ruling party's secretary- general. They ask how -- when he plays such a prominent role in the ruling party -- he can fairly judge new parties that are often opposed to the NDP. Eliminating the political parties committee altogether is the only acceptable option for some opposition figures. "Any other option would be a patch-up job," said leftist Tagammu Party Secretary-General Hussein Abdel-Razeq. Diaaeddin Dawoud, chairman of the Arab Nasserist Party, blamed the parties committee for the stagnation of Egyptian politics as well as the public's intense dissatisfaction with political party life. "The recognition of parties should stem from the support of the public rather than the official approval of a bureaucratic committee led by the ruling party's bigwigs," said Dawoud who firmly believes that the committee's real objective is not only to destroy any semblance of political diversity, but also to tighten the NDP's monopolistic grip on the country's politics. "The NDP exercises a monopoly over political life in two ways," Dawoud said. "By rigging elections and manipulating the political parties committee." According to The Political Parties System in Egypt, a report prepared by Al-Ahram's Political and Strategic Studies Centre, more than 50 requests to establish political parties have been rejected by the political parties committee over the past 25 years or so. Most of the rejected parties advocated a diversity of political tendencies ranging from nationalist to Islamist, liberal to leftist, as well as pan-Arabist -- and yet, the report said, the committee claimed that none had a platform that was any different from the 17-already existing parties. The opposition's grudge against the committee intensified after an application submitted by Hizb Al-Ghad (The Party of Tomorrow) was rejected twice. Founded a few months ago by parliamentarians Ayman Nour and Mohamed Farid Khamis, the party had hoped to be the voice of a new and young generation of liberal politicians and economists. According to Nour, a well-known journalist and the author of a book called Liberalisation is the Solution, the party managed to cull more than 15,000 members in less than a year. Nour told Al- Ahram Weekly the party was unique in two ways: its secretary-general is a woman (veteran political activist and American University in Cairo political science professor Mona Makram Ebeid); and its platform publicly calls for comprehensive political and economic liberalisation, with an emphasis on secularism. Other applications belonging to new parties with young faces and increasing popularity are awaiting the committee's approval. These include Al-Karama (Dignity) -- a Nasserist offshoot led by journalist and MP Hamdeen Sabahi -- and Abul-Ela Madi's Al-Wasat, a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot with moderate tendencies and Coptic members. Al-Ahram Political and Strategic Studies Centre deputy director Mohamed El- Sayed Said said a new political parties law must make licensing a new party, a new NGO or a new newspaper as easy as possible. "This must happen via a simple application to be submitted and registered with the Administrative Court or the Shura Council." According to Said, this type of system -- which was in effect throughout the 19th century and until the second half of the 20th -- was the main reason that era was filled with political liberalism. "In 1953, however, the July Revolution passed the first restrictive law on political parties in Egypt. We have to do away with this illiberal heritage and pass a new liberal political parties law aimed at activating political life and speeding up political liberalisation as soon as possible," he said.
