Cairo, February 24: Three decades after monopolising the power in Egypt, former president Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party is trying hard to revamp its image and survive in the post-Mubarak era.
With the bulk of its leaders quitting, the party, created by Mubarak’s predecessor Anwar Al Sadat in the late 1970s, is haunted by accusations of political and financial corruption.
Its former secretary of organisational affairs Ahmad Ezz, a steel baron, is standing trial at the criminal court on charges of graft.
“The party respects the Youth Revolution [which forced Mubarak to step down] and its demands for democratic development, support for freedoms, boost of social justice and fighting corruption in all its forms,” the board of the troubled party said this week. At one of the few buildings belonging to the party, the board now led by Mohammad Rajab looked like it was struggling to cope with new realities in Egypt.
“The National Democratic Party emphasises its belief in the civil state based on the principles of citizenship and equality,” added the statement. The party board pledged to eliminate “any corrupt elements from its ranks” and restructure its hierarchy.
Name change
Sources inside the party, which until last month was dominated by Mubarak’s younger son Jamal, disclosed that the party was considering changing its name and not fielding a candidate for presidency in September.
“For the time being, the party needs overhaul in order to overcome its image crisis,” an official inside the party told Gulf News on condition of anonymity. “I think we have now to focus on rehabilitating the party ahead of the parliamentary elections.”
The long-governing party won more than 90 per cent of the Egyptian parliament in controversial elections late last year.
Opposition and poll monitors said at the time the party was involved in massive fraud. A military council, which has been in control of Egypt since Mubarak was swept aside on February 11, dissolved the parliament.
“In view of the harm done by the National Democratic Party to the national interests, it must be dissolved,” said Essam Al Eslambuli, a lawyer who has filed a lawsuit against the party.
“As an Egyptian citizen, I have the right to and interest in having this party disbanded before it rearranges its ranks depending on the huge numbers of its loyals at local councils,” he told this newspaper.
The party, which dominated the media in Egypt, has come under fire from different directions including its mouthpiece newspaper for allowing Jamal Mubarak, a banker-turned-politician and his cronies “to tamper with destiny.”
Jamal was widely seen as a successor to his 82-year-old father.
Frustration: Key portfolios the same
Egypt’s new military rulers appointed a few ministers who opposed Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday, but exasperated the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups by keeping key portfolios chosen by the deposed leader unchanged.
The Brotherhood, Egypt’s biggest political organisation, said the new cabinet showed Mubarak’s “cronies” still controlled national politics and that a call for a million man march on Friday would show people’s anger and frustration.
“This new cabinet is an illusion,” senior Brotherhood member Essam Al Erian told Reuters. “It pretends it includes real opposition but in reality this new government puts Egypt under the tutelage of the West,” he added. “The main ministries of defence, justice, interior and foreign remain unchanged, signalling Egypt’s politics remain in the hands of Mubarak and his cronies,” Erian said.
Others involved in the movement that toppled Mubarak’s 30-year rule with an 18-day uprising rejected the reshuffle put together by the military council, led by Field Marshal Mohammad Hussain Tantawi, who has been defence minister for two decades.
-Agencies