Political reform and the 2011 presidential elections are not what the NDP's seventh annual conference wants to discuss next week, writes Gamal Essam El-Din The National Democratic Party's (NDP) seventh annual conference convenes next week in the wake of its landslide parliamentary election win. The conference, to be held under the slogan "A New Launch Towards the Future" is scheduled for 25 to 27 December. It was originally to have taken place mid-November. The NDP's six-member steering office, which met on Monday, stressed that economic issues and the daily life concerns of ordinary Egyptians will top the conference. President Hosni Mubarak's speech before the joint session of the People's Assembly and Shura Council on Sunday set the priorities of the conference, says NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif. "The conference will focus on socio- economic issues such as fighting poverty, improving public services and health insurance. It will conduct a dialogue on draft laws aimed to improve health insurance, fight the theft of state land and reinforce decentralisation in local administration," he said. The new year, El-Sherif continued, will see the NDP launch the implementation of its election programme, which will cost an estimated LE2 billion over the next five years. "We are keen to send the message to ordinary citizens that we are serious about the commitments contained in our parliamentary election programme. They represent a giant leap towards the future." El-Sherif indicated that "as many as 2,700 of the party's senior officials, including People's Assembly and Shura Council deputies, members of the Policies Committee and the chairmen of provincial offices will participate in next week's conference." Political issues -- including selecting the party's candidate for next year's presidential election -- will not feature at the conference. "Such issues will be discussed next year, not now," says Alieddin Hilal, NDP secretary for media affairs. Gamal Mubarak, the 46-year-old son of President Mubarak and chairman of the NDP's influential Policies Committee, is expected to play a leading role at the three-day conference. He will deliver a speech on the second day reviewing the NDP's achievements in 2010 and its plans and goals for 2011. "The NDP's programme aims to secure annual growth of seven per cent, establish 24 new industrial zones, complete the construction of 500 villages on desert land, and reclaim one million feddans," he said. LE100 billion has been set aside for improving public services, upgrading roads and providing potable water and drainage systems in poor villages and slum areas. Ahmed Ezz, NDP secretary for organisational affairs, will deliver a report on the elections. Ezz has been blamed by the opposition for orchestrating a parliament without opposition. During the NDP's 2009 conference he vowed that the Muslim Brotherhood, would never again be allowed again to win the 20 per cent of seats it secured in the 2005 parliamentary elections. NDP Assistant Secretary-General and Chief of Presidential Staff Zakaria Azmi will review the party's 2011 budget and the costs of its parliamentary election campaign. The inevitable triumphalism that will characterise the NDP's seventh annual conference could not contrast more with the gloom into which the opposition has sunk. Opposition parties argue that after excluding the regime's critics from parliament, the NDP is determined to become the sole political player and is actively promoting divisions within opposition ranks. Osama El-Ghazali Harb, leader of the opposition Democratic Front Party which boycotted the parliamentary elections, told Al-Ahram Weekly that "the NDP's overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections has prepared the ground for a lacklustre presidential election next year." "The election results are being hailed as a success for the NDP's young guard, led by Gamal Mubarak and Ahmed Ezz, who will now attempt to press home their advantage over the old guard." "The results of the election signal a shift in the balance of power and suggest the scenario of inheritance of power is progressing," said Harb. "I have no personal ambitions. My main goals are to create new political leaders and turn the NDP into a major force for political change in Egypt," Gamal Mubarak said during a recent televised interview. Yet, however, much Mubarak and other NDP senior leaders want to avoid the issue of the party's presidential candidate one thing is certain, if questions are not raised on the conference floor they will certainly dominate private conversations.
