State-owned flagship daily Al-Ahram tops its front page with news that President Mubarak has decided to delay the upcoming annual conference of his ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) from 9 to 10 November until 25 through 26 December. That means the party will be convening a month AFTER parliamentary elections scheduled for 28 November. The reason for the delay, according to the article, is so “the party organization can dedicate itself to the elections campaign.” But given the local tendency for conspiracy theory and the impenetrable nature of NDP decision-making, look for this change to spark speculation of behind-the-scenes manuevering or internal NDP power struggles as the real reason for the delay. The article also quotes Safwat al-Sherif, the NDP's secretary general, as saying the party is in the final stages of choosing its parliamentary candidate lists. Al-Ahram continues the state media's daily campaign of taking shots at the Muslim Brotherhood. This time it quotes Kamal Zaki Al-Lamae, chief judge of the Administrative Court as saying that “Islam is the Solution”--the Brotherhood's traditional slogan for its technically independent candidates--“violates the laws that oversee political rights.” Veteran followers of this press review will recall that “political rights” has emerged as one of the regime's favorite buzzwords this election season. The wonderfully vague term means whatever the government wants it to mean on any given day and this time, it's being used to prevent the Brotherhood from using the slogan that brought the group so much success in the 2005 parliamentary elections. Privately-owned daily Al-Shorouk puts more Muslim Brotherhood news on its front page, with a piece on Brotherhood accusations of an escalating government campaign to weaken the organization before the elections. Brotherhood leaders tell the newspaper that 361 activists have been arrested and 106 Brotherhood-affiliated businesses raided “because of the elections,” the Shorouk headline states. In a press conference Saturday, Brotherhood candidate Essam Mokhtar accused the government of “political harassment” while fellow Brotherhood parliamentarian Mohammed Beltagui vowed that the group would not fold under government pressure from such a historically critical election. “We won't withdraw from the elections because this parliament with choose the president of the future state,” Beltagui said, according the article. Shorouk also tops its front page with a summary of a harsh Washington Post editorial over the weekend that accuses President Mubarak of “doing the opposite of everything requested by President Barak Obama in terms of achieving democratic reform.” Privately-owned daily Al-Dostour puts Naguib Sawaris on top of its front page. The billionaire Orascom Telecom chief (and partial Al-Masry Al-Youm owner, in the interest of transparency) gave a rare interview with the Coptic Church-sponsored CTV channel in which it sought to smooth over recently turbulent Muslim-Christian relations. In the article, Sawiris, who is Coptic, appealed to his fellow Egyptian Christians to avoid self-inflicted isolation and mingle more openly in Egypt's predominantly Muslim society. “Open you hands and you homes to Muslims,” Sawiris said, according to the Dostour article, “because a shared life is the solution to all the problems we face.” Egypt's papers: Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size Al-Gomhorriya: Daily, state-run Rose el-Youssef: Daily, state-run, close to the National Democratic Party's Policies Secretariat Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Arab Nasserist party Youm7: Weekly, privately owned Sawt el-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
