Results of the parliamentary polls renewed internal divisions within the leftist opposition, Mona El-Nahhas reports The devastating loss of the Arab Democratic Nasserist Party in the recent parliamentary polls, while shocking, awakened the Nasserists to a harsh reality. For the second successive time in its parliamentary history, the party failed to secure a single seat in the People's Assembly. As such, steps are being taken by a group of Nasserist reformers calling themselves the Front of Change and Reform to revive what some have branded their "lifeless" party. Tomorrow, an emergency general congress is due to be held at the headquarters of the Nasserist Party to elect new party leaders and question whoever was responsible for the party's drab performance in the polls and in political life in general. Sharp criticism was levelled mainly at Ahmed Hassan, the party's secretary-general since 2002. Sameh Ashour, the party's first deputy, led a group of angry Nasserists who are pressing for reform and who are Hassan's opponents. In the wake of the polls, Ashour announced that he had received the go-ahead from ailing party leader Diaaeddin Dawoud to run party affairs in Dawoud's absence. Unwilling to abandon the powers authorised to him by means of his effectual post, Hassan said he began to doubt the authenticity of the signatures collected from party members who called for holding the general congress. He claimed the signatures were fake, depriving the would-be congress of legitimacy. Hassan also started legal measures to sue Ashour, accusing him of forging Dawoud's proxy. Ashour refused to reply to Hassan's accusations, describing them as "nonsense". As for members of the Front of Change and Reform, they condemned Hassan's attempts to abrogate their congress, insisting, in a statement issued earlier this week, that the front had every legitimate right to hold tomorrow's congress after 224 members called for staging it. They opened fire at Hassan, one describing him as "the big loser who caused the current decline in the Nasserist Party's role." Hassan, an appointed Shura Council member, was accused by his critics of being the tool by which the government would undermine the party. In fact, the Nasserist Party has basically disappeared from the political scene after its membership shrank to a few hundred. Prominent Nasserist members have been either resigning or freezing their membership. The lack of democracy in running party affairs and the absence of a coherent party structure led to the current state from which the party has been suffering for years. The 84- year-old Dawoud still holds onto the chairmanship seat, but leaves Hassan to run the party with full authority. Members holding senior posts, like Ashour, are not allowed to practise any significant role. In the leftist Tagammu Party, the situation is not much better. Secretary-General Rifaat El-Said submitted a request referring Sayed Shaaban, the party's secretary for organisational affairs, to a disciplinary committee after he allegedly violated the Tagammu's rules by giving statements to the media which, El-Said said, harmed the image of the party in the eyes of the public. In his statements, Shaaban accused the current party leadership of giving legitimacy to the regime by taking part in the re-run of the polls despite what the party called the electoral fraud which marred the first round. Shaaban hinted that El-Said had made a deal with the regime. Shaaban said he was ready to stand before the disciplinary committee to defend himself, stressing that he did not mean to harm the Tagammu by his statements. In the re-run and in what was seen as a reward from the governing system to the Tagammu for participating, four Tagammu candidates managed to get parliamentary seats, raising the number of its representatives to five MPs after one Tagammu candidate won in the first round. Ahead of the polls, a large group of leading Tagammu figures were against taking part, saying they refused to be the tool which would legitimise electoral fraud. However, the party's secretariat- general decided they should take part, viewing it as offering the Tagammu a ripe opportunity to meet the public and present its political agenda. Following the results of the first round of elections, heated events escalated at the leftist Tagammu Party. Sit-ins were staged and dozens of party members in the provinces submitted collective resignations to protest against the party's insistence not to withdraw from the polls. El-Badri Farghali, a former Tagammu MP who lost his parliamentary seat in the first round, topped the list of those who resigned. Fed up with the Tagammu leadership, which as Farghali claimed, collaborated with the regime in undermining the party and turning it into a branch of the ruling National Democratic Party, Farghali decided to form a new party which would represent the original leftist ideology and regain the public's trust. Several members of the party's central secretariat are pressing for withdrawing confidence from the party's leadership. On Saturday, the central secretariat, the party's highest body, issued low-key recommendations, contrary to what was expected, and which predictably angered a wide majority of Tagammu members. The secretariat stressed the necessity of keeping the unity of the party intact and abiding by party rules. According to the secretary-general, Sayed Abdel-Aal, differences of opinion at the Tagammu is something healthy. "However, they should be discussed among party ranks, not in public."
