The NDP seems to be struggling to select candidates for November's parliamentary poll, reports Gamal Essam El-Din The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) has delayed the selection of its candidates for November's People's Assembly election for a third time. Following a meeting on 27 September the NDP's six-member steering office announced that the 2,800 NDP members who had registered as possible candidates would now have to wait until 5 October before facing the party's electoral colleges. The delay, says NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif, is because organising the electoral colleges -- the first phase of a three-stage process -- is taking longer than expected. "Candidates will get just four minutes to give a résumé of their political achievements before members of the electoral college of their district," El-Sherif added. Among the NDP candidates there is growing concern that a final list has already been prepared and that the rest of the selection process is little more than window dressing. One of the party's candidates, who asked not to be identified, confided to Al-Ahram Weekly that "there is a strong belief among party members that electoral colleges and other selection procedures are being organised solely to create an impression that the final list of nominees has been chosen democratically." He added that, "a majority of party members are convinced that cabinet ministers and high-profile businessmen who registered as candidates will be selected automatically". Mohamed El-Ghamrawi, chairman of the NDP's Cairo office, says 250 members have registered in an attempt to become the party's candidates in the city, a figure that will be whittled down to 48. " The list of possible NDP candidates in Cairo includes several high- ranking officials and businessmen whose success is generally thought to be guaranteed. They include parliamentary speaker Fathi Sorour and the Chief of Presidential Staff Zakaria Azmi. In Alexandria, two cabinet ministers -- Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Moufid Shehab and Minister of Local Development Abdel-Salam El-Mahgoub -- are also expected to make the final list of candidates. Shehab is in charge of Alexandria's electoral college, tasked with selecting NDP candidates for the coastal city. "The fact that I am head of Alexandria's electoral college does not conflict with my position as a possible NDP candidate," he told the Weekly. "Heads of electoral colleges act as a link between the party's governorate office and the central secretariat in Cairo. They play no direct role in selecting candidates." Selection of candidates, expected to be completed by mid-October, will be followed by an announcement of the party's election programme. "This will be made during the party's seventh annual conference, scheduled for 9-10 November," said Shehab. Meanwhile, opposition parties have been busy announcing their own preliminary lists of candidates for the upcoming polls. Al-Arabi, the weekly mouthpiece of the Arab Nasserist Party (ANP), published the names of 55 possible candidates who will stand in 21 governorates. ANP Secretary-General Ahmed Hassan told the Weekly that "the number could be increased to 60 or 61 depending on the availability of funding". The ANP list includes six women who will compete in women-only seats. The last time the party won a seat in the People's Assembly was in 1995. It did, however, score a surprise victory in June's Shura Council's polls. The party's successful candidate was then supplemented on the council by Ahmed Hassan, who was appointed a member by President Hosni Mubarak. The ANP needs to secure at least one seat in the People's Assembly to be eligible to field a candidate in the 2011 presidential election. On 26 September the liberal-oriented Wafd Party -- the largest of the secular opposition parties -- announced a preliminary list of 140 candidates who will stand in 25 governorates. Wafd Chairman El-Sayed El-Badawi is due to hold a press conference on Friday to announce the final list of names. This will probably include a majority of the party's current MPs and a number of high-profile public figures, including actress Samira Ahmed, TV presenter Nagwa Ibrahim, religious cleric Soad Saleh and business tycoon Rami Lakah. Ahmed joined the Wafd ranks on 25 September and hopes to represent the party in the Cairo district of Qasr Al-Nil. Wafd's former chairman Mahmoud Abaza will not be competing in the November poll. The leftist Tagammu Party is due to make its initial list of candidates public on Saturday. Tagammu Deputy Chairman Sayed Abdel-Aal said on 27 September that the party will field 70 candidates in 26 governorates, including eight women. The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood has so far refrained from saying how many of its members will be standing in the poll as independents. On Ikhwanonline, the Brotherhood's website, the group's media spokesman Mohamed Mursi said a final decision must wait for a meeting of the Guidance Bureau. Despite its ambivalence so far on calls to boycott the poll the Brotherhood is expected to contest the poll. Its delay in making the decision public, say analysts, is an attempt to shield its candidates from any planned police crackdown. Seven of the group's leaders were arrested this week. Minister of Interior Habib El-Adli told Al-Akhbar newspaper on Sunday that "Muslim Brotherhood candidates are allowed to run in elections as independents" but warned that "police and security forces will be mobilised to take a swift action against anyone raising religious or sectarian slogans during the election campaign".
