NDP inside wars

It may seem to the outside observer that the NDP is the only party that is not suffering this election: they have the government on their side, they are flush in cash and they are better organized. The truth of the matter is, however, that the NDP is currently going through a huge division and dismay amongst its members, and that's because of the ex-NDP independent candidates issue. The issue is as follows: The NDP policy committee gets to decide who gets to run where, and this year they opposed the running of people who are actually in the parliament for newer faces whom they deem more suitable (read: connected with Gamal Mubarak) for the Party's new image. Naturally the dismissed veterans are outraged: After all the money they put in and their party loyalty, this is how they are getting repayed? And it's not just them who got dissed, a lot of other people who wanted to run on the NDP ticket on a certain seat got dismissed as well. So what they ended up doing was defect from the party, run as independents against their party's own candidates hoping to win anyway. Now, you would think that would be a good thing, right? Less seats for the NDP+ more disgruntled independents = better democracy, right? Ehh, wrong. The way it works, those same independents-if they win- will end up joining the NDP again anyway. And it's easy to join the NDP, because they don't really stand for anything but Power. They don't have a set ideology or direction or political leaning. They are more like "whatever goes!" and that's why it's easy to join them afterwards. The NDP has no qualms about it who joins them if they already won the race. Hell, if there is an independent that has a better chance to win then their candidates, most of the time they try to ensure him joining them afterwards. There is no better example that exists for that like the race in the Heliopolis and Nasr City district between Fawzy El Sayed (Independent) and Mostafa El Salab (NDP). Fawzy ran before as an independent in 2000 and almost won, but wouldn't officially sign on to join the NDP if he won. So they sabotaged his campaign and then bombarded him with indictments of corruption and racketeering and building code violations (he is a real estate tycoon). This time around he learned his lesson and he signed on the dotted line to join them if he does win. The man has a better chance then El Salab because he built housing for all of his workers and their families in the 10th district in Nasr City, and he has a lot of workers. Even though El Salab has the official party backing, they are helping Fawzy as well and facilitating things for him, because he has a better chance at winning this. Or there is that other race in the Qasr El Neel district between the incumbent Hossam Badrawy (NDP, Gamal's personal friend) and Hisham Mostafa Khalil ( ex-NDP independent, son of the NDP's vice president). This is a funny one for me personally because both Khalil and Badrawy are friends of the family. No one likes Badrway, whether in the party or in his district : The party members call him a pompous arrogant jerk and his constitiouents despise him for not doing anything for his district the past 5 years, being more busy hanging around Gammal then helping them. The NDP did not want to run him in the first place and wanted to run Khalil instead, which Badrawy has known this for more then a year now, which is why he tried to run for President of the Ahly sporting club earlier this year to boost his standing. He wasted so much money on this and ending up losing and badly at that. So he used his friendship with Gamal to stay the NDP candidate, even though the party really wanted him out instead and forced Khalil to resign and run as an independent. But then again, Khalil isn't any better really. The man is rich playboy who inherited his money and done almost nothing with his life but hook up with women half his age. His only virtue, besides having money, is his father's name, Mostafa Khalil, who used to be Egypt's prime minister. Which is why he runs his ads with his full family name, Hisham Mostafa Khalil, so that people would know it. Reasons for running? A strong sense of entitlement and keeping the family in the circles of power. On the bright side, he is not a jerk, and he has the best parties with the hottest russian girls present, so he is my kind of guy. But seriously, I can't decide which man is the worse candidate here: The powerhungry jerk or the achievmentless playboy. The NDP can't either, so it's supporting them both. They are supporting Badrawy officially and Khalil un-officially and Khalil has also declared that he is running on the party's principles and will rejoin the party if he wins, so it's all really weird and it's pissing the members off. Itr's pissing them off because they don't believe that the party is loyal to them at all. That they are all disposable the moment someone with more money and better conections comes along. It's finally dawning on them that maybe joining a party that stands for nothing but Power and will do anything to stay in power may not the safest place to be in and that the moment it's more beneficial to betray them than to keep them they will be betrayed. But they are clinging on to it nonetheless, because even if they can get betrayed any minute, until that happens they are in power, and that's all they really want. It's better to be disposable and in power then to be safe without power in their opinion, which is why they never get any sympathy- beven amongst their own- when they eventually do get disposed. In the NDP nothing and no one lasts forever, but they will try to milk it up until the last possible second. That's the way of the NDP .