The NDP is giving priority to legislative over presidential elections, reports Dina Ezzat The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) is busy finalising a draft manifesto to be presented during its party conference on 9 and 10 November. The platform, says NDP Secretary for Media Affairs Alieddin Hilal, is currently being discussed at the highest levels of the party and between party officials and the government. "We want to make sure that when we announce plans for projects that sufficient resources will be available to fund them," Hilal told Al-Ahram Weekly in a telephone interview. Also speaking to the Weekly on the phone Mohamed Kamal, chairman of the NDP's Indoctrination Committee, said the ruling party is working to draft two platforms, one offering guidelines for the party across the country and a second tailored to the needs of individual governorates and constituencies. The predominant theme of the NDP platforms, according to both Hilal and Kamal, is to improve the standard of living of Egyptians, particularly the less well- off. Generating new jobs, improving public services, especially education and health, modernising infra-structure and eliminating poverty are the party's key goals though "initiatives to promote political reform will also be included in the platform of the ruling party" says Kamal. According to NDP sources who spoke to the Weekly on condition of anonymity, these initiatives will not be revolutionary but they should essentially underline the commitment of the party to the "ongoing process of democratisation". The nature of the political reforms that the NDP is planning to propose, say sources, is intended to facilitate political participation and widen its scope. An immediate lifting of the emergency laws in force since the assassination of President Anwar El-Sadat in October 1981 is unlikely, says one source. He suggested that such a move would come "maybe on the eve of, maybe on the day after, the presidential elections, if an anti- terrorism law has been passed by then". The source said that in his opening speech before the conference President Hosni Mubarak, in his capacity as the leader of the ruling party, will reiterate the commitment he expressed upon his nomination for the 2005 presidential elections to work on replacing emergency laws with an anti-terror legislation. He is also expected to emphasise the NDP's determination to expand the exercise of political and civil liberties. The source was sceptical about the possibility of amending controversial articles of the constitution in the short-term and says such promises are unlikely to feature in the campaigns of NDP candidates running in the legislative elections scheduled for 28 November. Political rights activists and opposition figures have called for Article 77, which allows the president an indefinite number of terms in office, to be changed to limit the office to two consecutive terms. There have also been calls for changes to Article 76 to allow independents to run in the presidential elections. NDP sources speaking to the Weekly excluded any amendment to the article ahead of the next presidential election. Mubarak is unlikely to express any firm plans on his intentions vis-à-vis those elections, despite a recent statement by Hilal during a TV interview broadcast on Al-Hurra channel that "Mubarak is the NDP's candidate for the next presidential elections." Questioned by the Weekly, Hilal declined to elaborate further. "What we are working on now are the legislative elections. These are our priority," he said. Hilal's statements were interpreted by some as an indirect announcement that Gamal Mubarak's possible candidacy for the 2011 presidential elections had been fudged for now. Kamal underlined the party's current focus on the legislative rather than presidential poll. "There is no official statement from the party on its candidate for the presidential elections. The name of the candidate will be decided by a general convention of the party and nothing can be announced ahead of this process," he said. "It is too early now to talk about the presidential elections. We are preparing for the legislative poll. The NDP, like any political party, aims to secure a majority and form the government". The NDP has yet to announce a final list of parliamentary candidates and while stories have emerged of tough negotiations over who will stand key party figures deny this. "There are no divisions within the party on the issue of the candidates," insists Kamal. Hilal believes there is little possibility of NDP members defecting to stand as independents as they did in the 2005 elections. Then, the NDP won just 37 per cent of the 454 seats contested in the People's Assembly and only secured a majority by readmitting defectors. (see p.2)
