Tag: ndp
Hosni ‘re-elected’ party chief
As expected, at the NDP’s annual carnival of hypocrisy:
Hosni Mubarak has been re-elected leader of Egypt’s ruling party after a vote by members at the start of a party conference.
Via Al-Jazeera
Members of the National Democratic Party (NDP) voted on Saturday by a margin of 5,248 to 9 to keep the Egyptian president as head of the party for another five years, state news agency MENA said.
It was the first time since Mubarak was chosen to head the party in 1981 that the NDP leadership has been decided by a secret ballot.
In previous party conferences, members simply pledged an oath of allegiance to Mubarak.
Grooming successor
Mubarak is believed to be preparing his son Gamal, now a senior party official, to be his eventual successor.
Mubarak’s crackdown on free press continues
The pro-US dictator continues his crackdown on the opposition and independent press:
Reporters Without Borders today condemned a sentence of one-month’s forced labor imposed on editor of al-Wafd, Anwar Al-Hawari and Younes Darwish, the daily’s correspondent in Assiut, 380 kms south of Cairo, for “publishing false news” about fraud by two members of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).
Darwish wrote an article that appeared in March 2007 based on a meeting of the regional municipal council in Assiut, during which two lawyers, both NDP members, were accused of illegally obtaining land belonging to the ministry of Islamic affairs.
The correspondent said that he had made no judgement about the two complainants but the local court nevertheless sentenced Anwar Al-Hawari and Younes Darmish to a month of forced labor. They will remain free while awaiting the outcome of their appeal, which is due to open on 5 January 2008.
“The growing number of court cases brought against Egyptian journalists is in complete contradiction with Hosni Mubarak’s electoral programme,” the worldwide press freedom organization said. “He promised at the start of his new mandate to decriminalise press offences.”
I received also a statement from HRINFO, which you can read here.