From AFP:

Egypt’s ruling party is to elect its leader for the first time in a move geared towards eventually offering President Hosni Mubarak’s son Gamal the country’s top job, analysts said on Sunday.
The National Democratic Party (NDP) presidency — a post held by Mubarak since he came to power in 1981 — will be elected at its annual conference in November, party Secretary General Safwat al-Sherif said this week.
To qualify for candidacy, members need to secure signatures from 20 percent of the 5,500-strong party general assembly.
The significance of the election lies in the candidate list and whether it will include presidential son Gamal, whose meteoric rise within party ranks has fuelled speculation that he is being groomed for the presidency.
Amr Choubaki, an analyst with the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, a government-funded think tank, believes the election, and the strict conditions for candidacy, are there to prop up Mubarak junior.
“What is happening in the NDP… does not represent any step forward, it simply paves the way for hereditary succession,” Choubaki told AFP.
Obtaining signatures from 20 percent of the members creates “a crippling hurdle so that the door is not open to any real competitor to Gamal Mubarak,” he said.