The issues of democracy and citizenship represent the core of the National Democratic Party (NDP)'s vision for a comprehensive reform along with other economic and social reform topics, NDP Secretary General Safwat el-Sherif has said. 

Sherif was addressing the third plenary session of the party's ninth congress which was dedicated for probing those issues.

The session was addressed also by the party's Assistant Secretary General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Dr Mofid Shihab and member of the party's policies committee Dr Mohamed Kamal.

The political reform process does not only aim at making amendments into the political system, but also at introducing new practices into political life, el-Sherif told the session.

The NDP has adopted a number of initiatives over the past years including one on setting up the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) and the appointment of the first female judge, to increase to 30 this year, el-Sherif told the party's public session today.

The party was keen on beefing up the constitutional bases for the Egyptian political system.

This was confirmed in the recent constitutional amendments, he pointed out.

El-Sherif said the NDP believes in the importance of boosting public freedoms including the freedom of expression and publication.

The NDP is keen on empowering women and adopting policies strengthening their role in many domains, said el-Sherif.

He said that the NDP backed the independence of the judiciary as stipulated in the constitutional amendments.

El-Sherif said the NDP also believes in the multi-party system and strengthening the role of political parties.

5/11/2007