President Hosni Mubarak has called on all eligible Egyptian voters to cast ballots in upcoming parliamentary elections and carefully choose candidates with the best reputations and qualifications. In a note delivered Wednesday on his behalf by Safwat al-Sherif, secretary-general of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), to the party's General Secretariat, Mubarak said upcoming parliamentary races--slated for late 2010--would be held amid a "new climate of political reform." He also said he was closely closely following the policies devised by the party and that the new electoral system would ensure unprecedented levels of democratic representation. Al-Sherif also announced that the party planned to announce its electoral program at its upcoming annual conference scheduled for 9 November. NDP Legal Affairs Secretary-General Mufid Shehab, for his part, stressed the integrity of upcoming elections, reiterating the role of civil society organizations in supervising the electoral process. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
