Higher court allows Egypt’s ex- ruling party members to run in elections

Cairo’s Higher Administrative Court on Monday dismissed a ruling banning members of the former ruling National Democratic Party from contesting upcoming elections.

In April, an Egyptian court dissolved Hosni Mubarak’s now-dissolved NDP and ordered its funds and property to be handed to the government.

The then ruling party drew much of its loyalty from its function as a patronage machine. With around three million members, the NDP controlled parliament, municipalities and businesses.

The skeleton of its burned headquarters overlooking the Nile serves as a reminder of the people’s anger towards the party that came to symbolize corruption and power.

Dozens of high-profile party members, including former ministers, are currently in jail on corruption charges, but several thousand are believed to be planning to run for public office again.

Several members have formed new parties or joined existing parties and plan to contest the November elections, while remnants of the old regime have been blamed for continuing to incite chaos and violence.

Monday’s court decision, which was expected, is likely to see activists step up their campaigns to keep former regime members out of politics, a key demand of weekly protests since Mubarak’s ouster in February.

In October, members of the former regime held a mass rally and demanded to be allowed to run in the elections saying they should not be excluded from the post-revolt process.

“The revolution aimed to bring about freedom, dignity, democracy and social justice, not to promote some parties and exclude others, or restore dictatorship in any of its forms,” ex-minister of social solidarity Ali Moselhi said.