The resignation of Mubarak has left the NDP in limbo, reports Gamal Essam El-Din When Tunisia's former president Zein Al-Abidine bin Ali fled the country on 14 January, his 23- year-old ruling party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally (CDR), was left on the verge of collapse. The same scenario was repeated in Egypt when Hosni Mubarak decided to step down as president on 11 February. Two hours before Mubarak announced his resignation Hossam Badrawi, the businessman appointed secretary- general of Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) on 5 February, announced his own resignation. Thousands of NDP members have now followed him. Some, like Mustafa El-Feki, Mubarak's former secretary for media affairs, choose to announce their resignations live on satellite channels. The decision of the Higher Council of the Armed Forces (HCAF) to dissolve parliament further opened the floodgates of those trying desperately to distance themselves from their former allegiances. Like Tunisia's CDR, Egypt's NDP is in a state of limbo. True, its executive office met on 14 February and decided to select Mohamed Ragab, former NDP spokesman in the Shura Council, as the party's new secretary- general. Ragab will also keep his position as the NDP's secretary for organisational affairs. On 5 February he replaced Ahmed Ezz, the right-hand man of Mubarak's younger son Gamal, in the post. The NDP's executive office also includes Mohamed Abdellah, secretary for media affairs; Maged El-Sherbini, secretary for membership affairs; Mohamed Heiba, secretary for youth affairs, and Mohamed Kamal, secretary for indoctrination affairs. "The main job for me and other NDP members in this critical period is to upgrade the party, rid it of corrupt officials and revamp its ideology as a force calling for social justice," says Ragab. He disclosed that he will stay in his new position as secretary-general until the party can hold a conference to elect a new chairman, secretary and committees. Abdellah, NDP secretary for media affairs, insists that "despite the state of paralysis a lot of members reject the idea of dissolving the party." "Egypt needs a big party that can make its political life more competitive," says Abdellah. "The loss of the NDP would make it much easier for religious forces such as the Muslim Brotherhood to penetrate political life given the weakness of the secular opposition parties". The majority of the NDP's former senior officials have disappeared from political life. Gamal Mubarak, the son of former president Hosni Mubarak and former chairman of the NDP's policies committee, left for the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh with his father and family. Rumours are rife that the families of Gamal and his brother have left for London. Zakaria Azmi, chief of Mubarak's staff and the NDP's former secretary for financial affairs, is also believed to be with Mubarak in Sharm El-Sheikh. Al-Ahram newspaper quoted Azmi on Tuesday dismissing reports that he owns four villas in the Mediterranean resort of Marina, west of Alexandria. "All I have is a small chalet I bought from the Bank of Housing and Reconstruction," he said. Former NDP secretary-general Safwat El-Sherif has not been heard in public since 5 February. El-Sherif divides his time between his home in Heliopolis and a villa in the delux resort of Tagammu Al-Khamis east of Cairo. Like Azmi, Al-Ahram quoted El-Sherif as denying that he owns a portfolio of luxury properties. Assem El-Gohari, chairman of The Illicit Gains Office (IGO) which is affiliated to the Ministry of Justice, said on Tuesday that travel bans had not been imposed on Azmi or El-Sherif though the IGO is currently investigating the sources of the wealth of Azmi, El-Sherif, Gamal Mubarak and the other 30 members of the NDP's secretariat-general. There are rumours that El-Sherif might have left the country for London or Paris before being called in for questioning by prosecution authorities. Complaints have been lodged with the prosecutor-general accusing El-Sherif of peddling influence to help his son Ashraf secure 500 feddans on the Cairo-Alexandria Agricultural Road. It is also claimed that while in office for 22 years as minister of information, El-Sherif helped his son secure a host of business contracts in the media sector at inflated costs. A number of European countries announced on 14 February that the Egyptian government had asked them to freeze the assets of former officials. Ahmed Ezz, the NDP's former secretary for organisational affairs, appeared on the Saudi- funded Al-Arabiya TV channel on 14 February to deny allegations that he misused public funds or exercised a monopoly over the steel market. Ezz has been banned from travelling abroad and his bank accounts frozen. He spends most of his time in a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel, overlooking the Nile in Garden City. Moufid Shehab, the NDP's former secretary for parliamentary affairs and currently Minister for People's Assembly Affairs, is the only senior official from the party who has appeared in public. Shehab attended the interim government's meeting on Monday, sitting beside Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik. Few, though, question that his political future has come to an end as surely as that of parliamentary speaker Fathi Sorour and chairman of the Shura Council Safwat El-Sherif. Shehab has not so far been tainted with allegations of corruption. Alieddin Helal, a former member of the NDP's executive office and secretary for media affairs, has also disappeared since 5 February. Helal was a strong advocate of Mubarak running for a sixth term in office. In his capacity as the NDP's media secretary he was responsible for ensuring that the editors of state-owned newspapers toed the NDP line. Once a respected professor of political science at Cairo University, he has been accused by opposition forces of placing his experience at the service of Gamal Mubarak. Like Shehab, Helal has so far proved immune to accusations of corruption, though that is unlikely to salvage his political career.
