According to President Mubarak, the National Democratic Party remains in need of both a sustained rejuvenation effort, as well as serious reforms to its internal structures. Gamal Essam El-Din reports President Hosni Mubarak believes that the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) must be democratically restructured in order to reinvigorate itself, and attract the younger generations who are set to become a major political force, and the bulk of the voting public, in the near future. "I am aware that the process of restructuring the party is now in progress, via internal elections to fill positions from bottom to top," President Mubarak told Al-Ahram Chief Editor Ibrahim Nafie in an interview published earlier this week. "Holding elections, however, should not be an objective in and of itself," Mubarak said. "What is important is what these internal elections will lead to. We are in need of serious efforts... to prepare the new, young generations [so they will be capable] of filling the current political void," Mubarak said. The president expressed hopes that reforming the NDP's internal structures and upgrading its performance would be a catalyst for other political parties to follow suit in creating a new generation of enlightened political leaders. "This, I hope, will promote democratisation," said Mubarak, "in the sense of reinforcing political pluralism and stimulating participation in political life." The NDP, acting on Mubarak's behest, is about to finish the third phase of the first stage of its internal reform process. This phase includes holding elections to fill positions at three levels -- village, town and city, and governorate. In a meeting held at the party's Cairo headquarters on 22 June, members of the NDP secretariat-general's follow-up committee spoke of the significance of these three-level internal elections. Gamal Mubarak, a member of the NDP's secretariat-general, said the long-term reform process was launched following the 2000 parliamentary elections. Mubarak, who is considered the driving force behind the reforms, said this first stage began with a revamping of the system by which party candidates in parliamentary and municipal elections are chosen. The so-called electoral college system now gives party members at all levels the power to nominate -- by secret ballot -- those candidates they believe will have the best chance of success. This change was followed by the second phase, which included a shuffling of the NDP's secretariat-general itself in December 2001 in an attempt to reinvigorate it with young blood. The third phase of reform consists of this month's internal elections. For the past two weeks, these elections were held at the village and shiakhat (parts of districts) levels. They will be held at the district, town and city level until 22 July, and from 23 to 26 July, at the governorate level. Considered by party leaders to be a prelude to a potential shake-up at the NDP's eighth congress, which is due to be held on 15 September, it is not yet clear whether internal elections will also include the party's secretariat-general (25 members) and politburo (12 members). Political pundits believe that replacing the members of these supreme NDP echelons will be the real test of the party's stated objective of infusing fresh blood into its ranks. According to Gamal Mubarak, internal NDP elections are a basic form of NDP reform. "They will be followed by the second stage of reform, which will be adopted by the party's congress in September. That stage will include modifying the party's basic system and internal regulations, and reformulating its ideology," he said. In an interview broadcast on Egyptian TV on 30 June, Mubarak said, "we will be concentrating on how active the party's members are, rather than on how many members join the party every year. In England, for example, the number of active members in the Conservative Party stands at 300,000. This is a very good number which we hope to attain for our party," he said. Of a current total of over 2 million members, analysts agree that only between five and 10 per cent are active (100,000-200,000). Gamal Mubarak also explained that the party's ideology has remained the same since 1990. "We are trying to reformulate it, taking into account the international developments of all these years and emulating the experience of political parties in other countries such as England," he said. Addressing the 22 June Cairo meeting, Zakaria Azmi, a member of the NDP's secretariat-general and President Mubarak's chief of staff, said "we have to speak frankly and honestly. The objective of NDP internal elections is to democratically restructure the party in the sense of giving members the right to freely choose their leaders. This is why we want transparent and fair elections. I mean that we do not like to hear that the elections were won unopposed because we know how this kind of election is organised," Azmi said. In fact, the first level of internal elections featured as many as 150,000 party members vying for 134,440 positions, with 20 seats in every village or shiakha. The elections, which are to be held every five years, are organised in general conferences that have to be attended by at least 30 per cent of members in every village or shiakha. Cairo, for instance, which has 100,700 NDP members, includes 411 shiakha in 40 districts. In each shiakha, the party members -- via a secret ballot -- elect 20 seats, one of which is reserved for a woman, and half of which are designated for workers or farmers. Ninety-five per cent of those running won unopposed, a fact which led to much sarcasm from opposition parties. Said El- Gamal, a constitutional law professor and member of the Wafd Party, told Al- Ahram Weekly that the NDP's internal election did not contribute anything significant towards activating Egypt's political life. "Even if true, democratising the NDP internal structures will by no means lead to any democratisation of Egypt. This is simply because, irrespective of any internal elections, the NDP insists on monopolising political life by pursuing undemocratic practices," said El-Gamal. Citing a report prepared by the US Congress on democracy in the Arab world, El-Gamal argued that democratising Egypt will never be complete without an abolishment of undemocratic practices like rigging elections and harnessing the state's security forces and the emergency law in favor of the NDP. Opposition newspapers also wondered how such a massive, unopposed series of elections would lead to a reinvigoration of the party. Al-Ahali newspaper, the mouthpiece of the leftist Tagammu' Party, said the internal elections were cooked by the party's old guard to maintain their upper hand. It also referred to rampant corruption in the party's ranks as an obstacle to internal reform. It cited Saturday's trial of two NDP MPs charged with forging official documents to claim financial compensation for lands sequestrated in the 1960s. It also referred to NDP member Abdallah Tayel, chairman of parliament's economic affairs committee, whose parliamentary membership was lifted by Speaker Fathi Sorour so that he could be investigated on charges of providing, in his capacity as chairman of Misr-Exterior Bank, hefty loans to businessmen without adequate collateral. Opposition papers said these MPs are close to the party's leading old guard members. After the elections, Azmi said it was not important that elections were won unopposed; what mattered, he said, was that they were held at all levels. Gamal Mubarak admitted that in some cases, members were forced by the party's leaders at central and local levels to choose certain candidates. "I know that some leaders [want to stay] in their positions, but young people should not feel despair [when it comes] to efforts being exerted to abolish political passivity." Mubarak also dismissed claims that the NDP is suffering from an internal conflict between "old guard" members and its younger generations. Mohamed El-Ghamrawi, chairman of the NDP's Cairo office, said that although more than 90 per cent of the seats may have been won unopposed, at least 40 per cent of the winners were young people. "This means," El-Ghamrawi said, "that the objective of reinvigorating the party with fresh young blood is being realised."
