CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak's decision to postpone the annual conference of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) was unpredictable, political analyst and senior researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies Nabil Abdel-Fatah told Daily News Egypt on Sunday. “The delay of the conference reflects the president's wish to [emphasize] centralized power … [in a bid] to maintain the interests of the political leadership,” argued Abdel-Fatah. On Saturday, Mubarak, who is also the head of the NDP, decided to postpone the annual party's conference to December, a month after the People's Assembly (PA) elections. Egyptians will cast their votes in the PA election on Nov. 28, while the run-off will be held on Dec. 5. Accordingly, the NDP conference previously scheduled for Nov. 9–10 will now instead be held Dec. 25–26. “Holding the conference [at this stage] may expose the internal political differences [amongst the NDP] members [that the NDP party] selected to run for the elections and those who were not,” Abdel-Fatah noted. Abdel-Fatah does not rule out the possibility that the conference would have had a negative impact on the electoral process. “Even if the conference sessions are held behind closed doors, whatever [differences] erupt between the old guard and the new guard will not remain a secret,” said Abdel-Fatah, adding that this would affect the polls. On the other hand, NDP members believe that the delay provides the party with more time to prepare for the elections. “It is illogical that the party candidates [would] be able to attend the conference while being busy with their electoral campaigns,” MP and NDP member Mohamed Khalil Quowaita told Daily News Egypt. “Everything is [prone] to [political analysis given] the current circumstances.” About 3,000 NDP members and leaders from all over Egypt are expected to take part in the annual conference. Meanwhile, Mubarak decided to still hold the meeting for the NDP party's higher committee scheduled for Nov. 10 as part of election preparations, NDP party's Secretary General Safwat El-Sherif was quoted as saying by the official Middle East News Agency.
