CAIRO: As National Democratic Party (NDP) internal elections got underway this weekend, fighting in some provinces and low participation in others marred what had been touted by NDP members as a significant step towards democracy within the party. In Arish, six people were injured in fights and in Cairo, elections were postponed indefinitely due to outbreaks of violence, reported Al-Masry Al-Youm. The governorates that witnessed violence generally had high participation rates in the elections. Other governorates, particularly Alexandria and Suez, had weak participation, both in voter turnout and in candidates running for member positions. Some suspected that the dearth of candidates for NDP positions could be attributed to high application fees of up to LE 300. The elections were allegedly established by the NDP to "increase democracy inside the NDP itself and to set an example for other organizations so they can work and live in a democratic way, one NDP member informed Daily News Egypt in a previous interview. Each one of Egypt's 7,555 electoral units is to elect 20 representatives to the NDP's central administration in a continuing election process that is set to last until September 10. The violence and the low turnout were confirmed by several NDP sources, but reasons for what happened were more diverse. Mohamad Khalil Kwaitah, an NDP MP , told Daily News Egypt that the tensions in the elections were "a good thing. "It is an indication that the NDP has succeeded in making more people participate and in heating up competition among them, he said. "The NDP should be a role model because it establishes elections that build freedom of choice, and these fights are proof of this. "In every unit there are 20 positions, he continued, "and of course more than 20 people are interested. And there are tensions between different factions, which is a fact in Egyptian society. When asked to explain the low voter turnout in certain areas, Kwaitah said that "this is a new experience for some people and they aren't yet sure about the integrity of this election. However, Farid Ismail, NDP member, had a different take on these events. He told Daily News Egypt, that "there are many different opinions and positions within the party and everyone is bashing heads over them. This is the cause of these interior fights. Everyone is just backstabbing each other. He was skeptical as to how open and free these elections really were, saying that "the history of the NDP shows that their elections are always based on fraud. They are always saying it's a free election but we know that it's not. He also said that he was not surprised by the low voter turnout in Alexandria and Suez. "The NDP is always saying that many people show up for elections when in fact there are often very few. Emad Gad, a political analyst at Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said that the apathy was simply due to the fact that the NDP doesn't have a wide base of support in some places. "The only people who are interested in these elections are those within the NDP. The majority of Egyptians don't care about this party or their elections, said Gad. He also said that "there are no common values within the party, which is why the elections have led to confrontations as people turn to violence in order to influence party positions.
