CAIRO - A top official at the formerly ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) has said that the party will elect a new leader to replace its boss ex-President Hosni Mubarak, who stepped down on February 11. NDP Secretary General Mohamed Ragab said that the party would hold an urgent meeting within the coming days to elect a new chairman after the top leadership figures resigned, including Mubarak. “It's important to elect a new chairman and introduce changes to reinvigorate the party," Ragab said, according to the Arabic-language Al-Gomhuria newspaper. The party's leaders who resigned included some of the country's most powerful politicians and its most unpopular among many Egyptians. Among those on the six-member party Steering Committee that stepped down was the NDP's Secretary-General, Safwat el-Sherif, and the ex-President's son Gamal Mubarak, who was long seen as his father's intended heir as president before the January 25 revolution. The party dominated Egypt's political scene and power for more than 30 years. Ragab said that NDP headquarters was still owned by the Upper House of the Egyptian Parliament (the Shura Council) and not the property of the Cairo Governorate as some media reports have claimed. "Since Mubarak's stepping down, the NDP will elect a new president at a general assembly that is expected to be held within the coming few days," he added.
