The changes within the NDP are likely to shape the political face of Egypt for many years to come, reports Gamal Essam El-Din On Saturday, the first day of its ninth congress, the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) re-elected President Hosni Mubarak as chairman. Mubarak won 99 per cent of the votes. Out of 5,310 votes cast in a secret ballot, nine people voted against Mubarak and a further 53 were judged invalid. Mubarak will now remain chairman of the NDP until presidential election year 2011. On the same day as Mubarak's re-election the party's internal statutes received a major overhaul with the addition of three articles. The first stipulates that a supreme council be formed, comprising the 45 members of NDP's politburo and secretariat-general, to select the party's candidate for the 2011 presidential poll. The second article states that should any member of the council wish to run, the nomination will first need to be ratified by an extraordinary general meeting of the party. Any potential candidates will then be investigated by a committee headed by the NDP's secretary for ethical and legal affairs. Once approved, the nominee will still have to secure the support of at least 50 per cent of congress delegates. President Mubarak named the 45 members of the new Supreme Council on Saturday and Sunday. The council's 12 politburo members comprise President Mubarak as chairman, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Speaker of the People's Assembly Fathi Sorour, Chairman of Shura Council and NDP Secretary- General Safwat El-Sherif, former agriculture minister Youssef Wali, former parliamentary affairs minister Kamal El-Shazli, Chairwoman of the People's Assembly Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee Amal Othman, Deputy Speaker of the People's Assembly Zeinab Radwan, President of Al-Azhar University Ahmed El-Tayeb, member of Shura Council Farkhonda Hassan, Chairman of the People Assembly's Human Rights Committee Edward Ghali El-Dahabi and Coptic businessman Tharwat Bassili. The remaining 33 members of the council belong to the secretariat-general and include Chief of Presidential Staff Zakaria Azmi, Minister of Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Moufid Shehab, Chairman of the Policies Committee Gamal Mubarak, and the NDP's secretary-general for organisational affairs, steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz. They are joined by several university professors including Alieddin Hilal, the NDP's secretary for media affairs, Mohamed Kamal, secretary for indoctrination affairs, Mohamed Abdallah, secretary for foreign affairs, Mohamed El-Dakrouri, secretary for legal and ethics affairs and Mohamed El-Hefnawy, secretary for professional affairs. Members of the cabinet on the council include Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali, Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin, Industry Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid and Information Minister Anas El-Fiqi. The businessmen members are Hossam Badrawi, NDP secretary for business affairs, Said El-Alfy, secretary for financial and administrative affairs, and Ibrahim Kamel. Female representatives are supplemented by Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel-Hadi, the NDP's secretary for women, and university professors Nadia Makram Ebeid and Yomna El-Hamaki. The council will also include Maged El-Sherbini, NDP secretary for membership, Ahmed Mansi, secretary for farmers' affairs, Mohamed Abdel-Halim, secretary for labour affairs, Mohamed Heiba, secretary for youth and Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen Saleh, secretary for local administration. The remaining members are either MPs in the People's Assembly or members of Shura Council. Gamal Mubarak's membership of the NDP's newly-formed Supreme Council inevitably became the subject of speculation. Diaa Rashwan, a political analyst with Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, points out that until now, "under Article 76 regulating presidential elections it would have been impossible for Gamal Mubarak to nominate himself in a presidential election." "The article stipulates that presidential candidates must stand either as independents or belong to the governing body of a legal political party in order to be eligible to run," says Rashwan. In the case of the NDP, the governing body used to be the politburo, of which Gamal Mubarak was not a member. "The merge between the secretariat-general and the politburo in a supreme council now makes it possible for Gamal to be nominated as a presidential candidate." During a press conference on Monday, Gamal Mubarak refuted suggestions that the changes had been made to allow him to stand. "Changing the NDP's statutes has been on the cards for a long time, though I'm not surprised that it has been taken out of context and become the subject of speculation," he told reporters. The merge between the politburo and secretariat-general into a 45-member supreme council, he continued, was intended only to clarify the framework for presidential elections. The one thing it does clarify, argues Rashwan, is that Egypt's next president will be drawn from an extremely narrow circle -- one of the council's 45 members. Gamal Zahran, an independent MP and professor of political science, agrees. "Since there is no chance that any member of the governing bodies of other legal parties will win a presidential contest, the future of the office is now restricted to the family of the president and their closest associate." Zahran further argues that whatever the legal status of the NDP's new Supreme Council, none of its members will feel sufficient confident to nominate his or herself whilst sitting at the same table as President Mubarak and his son. Other changes made during the course of the conference include the timing of the party congress. It will now convene every four, not five, years. The change, says Radwan, was made so that the next congress can be held ahead of the 2011 presidential elections. The NDP also decided to conduct internal elections at four, rather than five, yearly intervals, except in the case of elections to posts at the village level which will be held every two years.
