CAIRO: Egypt is in a transitional process towards a civil state, President and head of the National Democratic Party (NDP) Hosni Mubarak said in the closing speech of the party's annual conference Tuesday. "We are passing through a transitional phase on the road to reform and development, Mubarak said, "and it is a civil state with foundations on the values of citizenship, in a possible indication that the next NDP presidential candidate need not be from the military. Mubarak, former head of the air force, shares his background with his predecessors, presidents Gamal Abdel-Nasser and Anwar Sadat, who also came from military backgrounds. As he concluded the annual NDP conference, Mubarak placed the party at the center of the country's future direction, saying the NDP "is at the heart of the national course and its aims. The previous day, the son of the President and head of the policy secretariat at the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) Gamal Mubarak underplayed talk of the inheritance of power after his inclusion in the newly-formed Supreme Committee, which contained a pool of possible presidential candidates? "There are legal and constitutional frameworks that regulate the presidential election and the issue of succession, he said, and that he chose to focus on the 2010 parliamentary elections. "We know that in 2010 the public will question us about the pledges we made in the parliamentary elections in 2005, Gamal said, "we know that we must honor the promises we made because there is public opinion that will bring us to count. And in a meeting with foreign envoys on Tuesday, Gamal Mubarak denied that human rights abuse was endemic in Egypt and that it occurred with the tacit blessing of the government and ruling party. This came in light of the sentencing on Monday of two police officers with three-year jail terms for sodomizing and beating a bus driver, Emad El-Kabir, in a police station in January 2006. "Yes there are some problems, Gamal said, "but there is a difference between a situation when the government and the ruling party turn a blind eye to these problems and a situation when these bodies try to improve things. Human rights groups insist that human rights abuses and torture are endemic and systematic in Egypt. As for Egypt's relationship with the United States, Gamal said they would like to redefine the relationship from one solely about American aid to Egypt to a more mutual relationship based on common interests and economic cooperation. Gamal said, "True, there are differences of opinion on some of the regional and international issues, but there is dialogue between the two countries. The annual NDP conference kicked off Saturday with the uncontested election of Hosni Mubarak as party chairman with 99 percent of the vote. It also saw the creation of the Supreme Committee by combining members of the policy secretariat and political bureau. Members of the Supreme Committee may be put forward as the party's candidate for the presidential elections.
