Egypt’s former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) is set to resume its activities, according to the party’s secretary for media affairs, Mohamed Abdellah.
“We are staying on the ground in whatever capacity,” says Abdellah.
The party experienced a series of further blows to its credibility as allegations of corruption emerged since toppled President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on 11 February.
Senior party members are also accused of orchestrating a bloody attack on pro-democracy protesters on 3 February, which was carried out by hundreds of organized thugs.
Members of the party are aware of the stigma they carry. Daily reminders appear of the ill effects of its 33-year rule–29 of those years under Mubarak–most recently in form of the arrest of former organizational secretary Ahmed Ezz.
“We were shaken quite profoundly. Moving forward will require changing the general direction of the party, which will be initiated by youthful elements in the NDP,” Abdellah says.
The party’s executive committee has changed twice since 5 February. A group led by former Party Chairman Safwat al-Sherif, members such as Gamal Mubarak (Hosni Mubarak's son) and others resigned after accusations were directed at the NDP leadership regarding the calamitous 3 February clashes.
Then the newly appointed chairman, Hossam Badrawy–much less stigmatized–resigned from the party on television, moments before the recently appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman announced Mubarak’s resignation on 11 February.
Many of the allegations concern infringements since Gamal Mubarak entered the fray in 2002 to found the NDP's Policies Secretariat, which he chaired.
Gamal, along with steel tycoon Ezz, instigated policies and a party framework that were seen as monopolizing the political scene in Egypt.
Despite relatively free parliamentary elections in 2005, Gamal and his cohorts were seen as the architects of a mass fraud that took place during the 2010 parliamentary elections that saw the NDP win by a landslide.
Analysts believe the NDP will not be able to recover politically to become a fully functioning party again.
“The NDP is over. They lost all their credibility. Since its inception the NDP was attached to the power structure in Egypt. With this gone, so are they,” says Emad Gad, an analyst at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
While Ezz is set to stand trial, others, such as al-Sherif and the former speaker of the People’s Assembly, Fathi Sorour, have been neutralized politically.
Presently the remaining party leadership is conducting a series of workshops and focus groups to look into a way forward for the party. “We hope to return to the founding principles of the party,” says Abdellah.
Reports of large numbers of resignations from the NDP’s three-million-strong membership have circulated, with no confirmed figures.
Some formerly active members have expressed doubt over whether the party can continue. “Reforming the party is difficult. What is built on corruption will always be corrupt,” says Mohamed Hussain, a 25-year-old NDP member from the Sayyeda Zeinab neighborhood.
Hussain joined the party five years ago with hopes of bringing about change from within, but by the end of 2010 had become increasingly skeptical about whether this was possible.
“They would conduct a conference for young NDP members to put forward their proposals for the country, just so it can be put on a CD for public relations purposes,” he says.
As a result, along with many other young members, Hussain was one of the first out to protest on 25 January. “The difference between us [young NDP members] and the rest of Egypt is that they heard of the NDP corruption, while we saw it first hand."
Still, Abdellah believes that the corrupt NDP figures do not represent the entire structure. “We need to move away from this type of generalization. The general requests of the opposition groups [in the revolution] do not run counter to our principles and we can work with them in the future.”
According to Gad, there is a large number of “honorable figures” in the NDP who have not lost their credibility with the people–however he believes it is no longer tenable for them to continue working from within that party: “These people, such as Hossan Badrawy, should leave the NDP and form their own parties."
Badrawy has indeed begun work on a new political party, reportedly called the 25 January Party. The contentious name has been criticized by many. “It is not anyone’s right to try and appropriate the revolution for their own political party,” says Gad.
Public distrust of the party and its association with an oppressive political regime will make it difficult to move forward in its current form. “The option to alter the name of the party, or the logo, still stands,” says Abdellah.
Proposals to transform the NDP’s landmark headquarters—burnt to a crisp during the revolution–into a cultural center have been put forward.
According to Abdellah, despite all the opposition, it is the NDP’s duty to continue in Egyptian politics to avoid a political vacuum: NDP members held most ministerial positions under Mubarak, and 85 percent of seats in the dissolved parliament in the 2010 elections.
The proposed constitutional amendments should however soon open the door for the creation of new political parties, according to Gad, removing the need for the NDP to fulfil even a "stopgap" function: “These parties will quickly fill the political void."
