The ruling NDP began selecting candidates for the People's Assembly this week. Gamal Essam El-Din reports on the three-stage process The electoral colleges of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) convened in 29 governorates on Tuesday to select the party's candidates for November's parliamentary elections. The conferences will be followed next Saturday by internal elections in which the party's two and a half million members are eligible to vote. In a statement issued on Sunday, NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif said the electoral colleges are the first stage in whittling down the 2,900 party members who have put themselves forward as possible candidates. "The second stage," he added, "will begin next Saturday and last until 24 October." The results of the two-stage selection process, supplemented by the results of opinion polls, will be submitted to President Hosni Mubarak in his capacity as the NDP's chairman. The system, said El-Sherif, is designed to ensure successful candidates enjoyed popular support and are of good character. He conceded that the party had allowed some candidates to put themselves forward after the registration period closed on 28 August. On Sunday, the NDP allowed four men and three women to register, among them Tarek Radwan, the son of former minister of culture Mohamed Abdel-Hamid Radwan, in Sohag's district of Dar Al-Salam. An NDP statement said Radwan is a member of the NDP's Policies Committee, led by Gamal Mubarak, and the executive director of a satellite television company. "Tarek is a good new face and his family has played an important role in developing the governorate of Sohag," said the statement. Also from Sohag is Mohamed Abdel-Rehim El-Sayed, a pharmacist who belongs to one of the governorate's wealthiest families. Essam Abdallah, a member of the NDP's Indoctrination Committee and chairman of an oil company, is a third young face from Upper Egypt. Abdallah has registered to contest the Qena district of Abu Tisht. Tarek El-Rifaei, a member of NDP's Media Secretariat, will fight the Basandila district of Daqahliya. Several women were also allowed to join the selection process even though the nomination period had officially ended. They include Zeinab Radwan, deputy speaker of the People's Assembly and a professor of Islamic studies; long-time NDP member Madiha Khattab, the sister of Minister of Family and Population Mushira Khattab and Sawsan El-Toukhi, the dean of 6 October University's Faculty of Science and Technology and the daughter of Soad Kafafi, a pioneer social worker. If selected, Radwan, Khattab, and El-Toukhi will vie women only seats in Cairo. El-Sherif explained that NDP's women candidates will face public rallies in 29 governorates rather than electoral colleges. The idea of electoral colleges was first introduced by Gamal Mubarak during the parliamentary elections of 2005. NDP sources say he adopted the idea from the UK. The whole electoral colleges system, says Mohamed Kamal, chairman of the NDP's Indoctrination Committee, was devised by the Policies Committee in an attempt to update and democratise the party's decision-making and selection process. The electoral colleges include the party's leading officials in each of Egypt's 29 govenorates and are headed by the chairmen of provincial offices. NDP members who have registered as candidates are expected to answer written and verbal questions explaining why they are seeking nomination and providing a detailed resume of their political achievements. The system of electoral colleges was criticised in 2005, with many blaming its introduction for the poor performance of the NDP's official candidates who secured just 32.6 per cent of parliamentary seats. The figure subsequently rose to 71.5 per cent when NDP members who ran as independents re-joined the party ranks. Members of the colleges were routinely accused of being open to bribery. As a result, says Kamal, the party abandoned its dependence on electoral colleges as the sole means to select candidates, supplementing the process with internal elections and opinion polls. The list of NDP candidates who faced electoral colleges on Tuesday included a large number of prominent businessmen, eight cabinet ministers, the speaker of the People's Assembly Fathi Sorour and Chief of Presidential Staff Zakaria Azmi.
