A stormy conference resulted in the leftist Tagammu Party agreeing to change the current system by which the party chooses its ranking members. Mona El-Nahhas reports At the leftist Tagammu Party's 19 December emergency conference, the hottest debate was about the implementation of article 8 of the party statutes. The article bans members from remaining in leading posts for more than two successive sessions, or eight years. Its enforcement was mandated by a very narrow vote. Twenty other articles were amended during the conference, but article 8 continued to divide the party into two opposing camps. The article was first amended to the statutes during the party's July 1995 third general congress. With the article in force, party Chairman Khaled Mohieddin, as well as party Secretary-General and other leading members, who have held their posts for the eight years since the article came into being, will now have to step down. They can, however, nominate themselves for any post other than the one they were just occupying. Mohieddin, who had previously indicated that he would not nominate himself for a new four-year term, insisted at the conference that the article be enforced. "How can we call for the rotation of power inside political institutions," he said, "and not apply the same principles within our party." In his opening speech, Mohieddin spoke extensively about Egypt's current political system, blaming the government for its state of stagnation, as well as the rise of poverty amongst the middle classes. He stressed that the lack of democracy, and the misuse of political influence, have combined to spread corruption. The conference chose Mohieddin to chair a high-level consultative committee that will be formed to aid the party leadership. The committee will meet every two months to evaluate the party's decisions, and general performance. Nominations for the party's upcoming elections will start within weeks. Expectations are that Said is the strongest candidate to replace Mohieddin, who has chaired the party for more than 20 years. Said's "pro-governmental" policies, however, have been criticised by a number of party members. These critics argue that Said's attempts to harmonise with the government have negatively affected the party's popularity, and weakened its performance in general. They say Said has shifted the party's stance from its far left leanings to somewhere within the borders of what they call the "governmental" left. As a result, several leading members have submitted their resignations, while others decided to freeze their membership until all problematic issues are settled. The anti-Said camp is led by Tagammu MP El-Badri Farghali. During the conference, Farghali and his supporters tried but failed to convince Mohieddin to stay on as chairman. "I'm not satisfied with the results of last week's conference," Farghali told Al-Ahram Weekly. "It doesn't make sense to amend more than 20 articles of the statutes in just a few hours. Discussion of such essential amendments should have taken days," he said, vowing to exert every effort to try and avoid the amended articles being enforced. In Farghali's view, the article mandating the rotation of power within the party actually weakens it. "It would be better if Mohieddin occupied the post for another four years," Farghali said. "It will not be in the party's interests if Said -- with whom a large sector of the party disagrees -- led the Tagammu." The group supporting Said left the conference much more satisfied. According to Hussein Abdel-Razeq, a member of the party's political bureau, "by [enforcing the article], we will prove to everyone that our party is democratic, providing an example for all other political institutions that the principle of rotation of power can be applied."
