In Egypt Mubarak’s Party is Dissolved


by L. S. Carbonell
Cairo, Egypt
On Saturday, the Egyptian High Administrative Court ordered the National Democratic Party of former President Mubarak disbanded and its assets seized to be returned to the national treasury. The Court statement said “It’s illogical for any instruments of the regime to remain, not that the regime itself has fallen.” With regards to the party’s assets, the statement said “this money is actually the money of the people.”
The party was founded in 1978 by the late President Anwar Sadat. It was, for all intents and purposes, the only legal political party in Egypt. Political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah of the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies said that “All the cental powers in Egypt of the Mubarak regime, all of them, were under the umbrella of the NDP. I think its infrastructure was very powerful. The NDP also had huge money in banks, not just from membership fees, but I think also from businessmen who financed the NDP. The money came from many sources.” The dissolution of the party is an important step in creating the new government based on a multi-party system. It will also help to ease the pressure on the transitional army-run government which has been subjected to on going protests ever since the Mubarak regime fell on February 11. Many of the senior ministers in the Mubarak government, including Mubarak and his sons Gamal and Asaa are in military custody awaiting questioning, arraignment and eventual trial.

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