While the NDP is busy preparing the agenda of its ninth congress, the opposition has few hopes the event will signal any change, writes Gamal Essam El-Din The National Democratic Party's Policies Committee held a meeting yesterday to review the agenda of its forthcoming congress. Chaired by Gamal Mubarak, the committee reviewed the political and socio-economic agenda of the NDP's ninth congress which is expected to address a host of issues ranging from citizenship rights and unemployment to health insurance and reform of the fiscal and tax system. On Monday, NDP Chairman President Hosni Mubarak held meetings with NDP Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif and Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif. El-Sherif said he presented Mubarak with a report detailing internal restructuring within the NDP and assessing the progress of reform since the eighth congress, held in 2002, in addition to the legislative agenda of the ninth congress. The latter will include draft laws dealing with local administration, a raft of new economic legislation, and the proposed anti-terror bill. El-Sherif told reporters he had also informed President Mubarak about plans to amend some of the NDP's own statutes. The amendments, he continued, are intended to balance the relationship between the party's political politburo and secretariat-general. NDP assistant secretary-general and chief of presidential staff Zakaria Azmi surprised analysts when, on 18 October, he announced that the congress would debate whether or not to hold elections on an annual basis. He was quickly contradicted by El-Sherif who insisted elections would take place at five yearly intervals, with only 20 per cent of posts being voted on in any single year. El-Sherif said that President Mubarak had endorsed the agenda of the congress, which few doubt will re-elect Mubarak as NDP chairman. "There is a complete consensus among party members that President Mubarak should be re-elected NDP chairman," said El-Sherif. "And following his re- election Mubarak will deliver a wide ranging speech to the opening session." El-Sherif revealed that a special commission had been formed to supervise the election of the chairman, headed by Youssef Wali, former secretary-general and currently the party's deputy chairman, and including parliamentary speaker Fathi Sorour, chairman of the NDP's Ethics and Legal Affairs Secretariat Mohamed Dakrouri, chairman of the People's Assembly's Human Rights Committee Edward Ghali El-Dahabi and deputy chairman of Shura Council Abdel-Rehim Nafie. Prime Minister Nazif said his meeting with Mubarak had focussed on ways in which to pursue the implementation of Mubarak's 2005 presidential manifesto. "President Mubarak has ordered government and NDP officials to coordinate ahead on the Congress so as to furnish participants with an in-depth review of progress made so far," said Nazif. Sources say that the political agenda of the Congress will include a number of controversial articles of legislation, not least a debate on the first draft anti-terror law. Opposition leaders have little hope that the Congress will signal any significant change in the direction being pursued by the NDP. "Given the limited achievements of earlier congresses and the setbacks to democratisation engineered by the NDP, I have few, if any hopes, for the upcoming congress," said Mahmoud Abaza, leader of the liberal-Wafd Party. Wahid Abdel-Meguid, a senior Wafd official and a political analyst with Al-Ahram, argues that, "Egypt is passing through a cold war between the NDP and the opposition parties". The opposition, he said, was united in condemning the congress's legislative agenda which "was prepared without any ounce of consultation with opposition parties". "I expect the draft of the anti-terror law will widen the gap between the NDP and opposition and further polarise the nation into rival camps," he said. Abdel-Meguid also criticises the form of the draft local administration law. "From what I have read it is purely cosmetic, designed to maintain the NDP's iron grip on city councils." On Saturday, the committee formed to coordinate the positions of the four major opposition parties met to discuss a review of their "national dialogue paper". "The paper will recommend closer dialogue between the coalition's four opposition parties -- Wafd, Tagammu, Nasserists and the Democratic Front -- over political and constitutional reform," says Abdel-Meguid. The coalition has entrusted Osama El-Ghazali Harb, deputy chairman of the Democratic Front, with writing an introduction to the dialogue paper. El-Ghazali told Al-Ahram Weekly the introduction will detail why the four opposition parties had joined forces in pushing for political reform. "Foremost among our reasons is the increasingly dictatorial nature of the NDP's policies, which became ever more apparent in the course of this year, and which has coincided with an escalating crackdown on all forms of opposition," said El-Ghazali. He believes that despite some limited economic successes in recent months there is a consensus among opposition groups that Egypt is passing through a political crisis. "The NDP's 'new way of thinking', launched in 2002, has been shown to be no more than a hollow slogan and the party has nothing to offer beyond the stick of security and a police state," says El-Ghazali. The coalition, he continued, is determined to forge an alternative to a "bankrupt" NDP and "reactionary" Muslim Brotherhood.
