Egypt sees rebirth of National Democratic Party

Apr 14th, 2011
By Heba Hesham

CAIRO: On Wednesday, Egypt witnessed the rebirth of the National Democratic Party (NDP) in its new format under the name “New National Party” was announced in a press conference at its headquarters in Heliopolis, with new figures and a new president, Talaat El-Sadat, one of the fiercest opponents of the previous policies of the National Democratic Party (NDP) of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

“We are not the only big party that faced such crisis; there are many parties and both the Democratic and Republican parties in [the] US for example, yet they rose and acquired people’s confidence once more,” said Mohamed Ragab, the Secretary-General of the New National Party.

“We didn’t disperse the party because it has thousands of honest members within it and we cannot put them in one basket with the corrupt figures,” he added.

“We had two choices, either to die as others, which is the easy way or to return the party to its previous track initiated by the former President of Egypt Anwar El Sadat and that fell apart as a result of years of corruption,” continued Ragab.

“We don’t care about the party that vanished by the end of Ahmed Ezz and Gamal Mubarak,” he added. “We care about the party commenced by the late Anwar El-Sadat for the people and by the people.”

Yet, the party cannot become a new party unless it ends the stereotype long-stuck with it as a “corrupted party,” according to Ragab.

“We apologize for any corruption that was caused by the party and we promise the people that the new party will be the same as the first initiated one,” he continued.

The New National Party started a “purification” operation within its ranks by ridding itself of corrupt figures and opening new opportunities for the youth inside the party. “We decided that any new structure in the party should include at least 50% of youth,” said Ragab.

“Our main mistake is that we were wedged with the government although it didn’t support our policies; we were going in different routes and that what caused what happened,” said the Secretary General.

The new policy of the party is to stand by the people not the government. The party is now passing through a transitional period, which will end by the next parliamentary elections that the new president of the party is sure that they will become the majority party.

“I wish that the New Party will be the majority party in all coming elections and I am confident we will do that by winning the people on our side by our new policies and projects in all parts of Egypt like Sinai and Nubia,” said El-Sadat.

“Egypt is now at a crossroads; either to return to its normal position or to destruction,” he added. “The role of the National party is to balance the political defect by allowing the 85 million Egyptians to rule themselves and hindering any minority from ruling the majority.”

“I wish we could reach a political, economical and social reform in the fastest time possible; for instance we want the new Minister of Finance to increase the purchasing power of the Egyptian pound, I also wish that the new government would include from 10 to 15 youth,” he added.

Starting from the date of the conference all branches of the New National Party in all Egyptian governorates will work in full strength to serve the needs of the people, according to the new president of the party.

Source: Bikya Masr.
Link: http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=32450.