Egypt: NDP leaders banned from running in elections

A Cairo court banned, on Tuesday, members of the now-dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP) from running in parliamentary, municipal or presidential elections.

According to Al-Quds news website, the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters stated: “Since it was founded in 1978, the NDP Party played a political role in choosing corrupt governments, drafting laws that conflicted with the constitution and preventing the implementation of judicial rulings.” The NDP was the party headed by former President Hosni Mubarak.

On 16 April 2011, the State Council ordered the dissolution of the party and the confiscation of its assets, which served as the basis of Tuesday’s ruling.

“A court ordered the dissolution of the party and the confiscation of its assets in 2011,” the ruling went on. “The ruling was based on the revolution of 25 January 2011 that ousted the political regime and compelled the former president to step down on 11 February 2011. This entails the removal of the party from the Egyptian political scene in line with the will of the people.”

The ruling comes one day after Field Marshal Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, who headed the July 2013 coup that ousted President Mohamed Morsi, declared on television that under his leadership the Muslim Brotherhood would no longer exist. Prior to the coup, the movement had won every democratic election since the revolution that toppled Mubarak.

Source: Alquds