President Hosni Mubarak was today re-elected chairman of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) by a massive show of hands at the party's first convention in a decade.
Mubarak, president of Egypt since 1981 and the sole candidate for the NDP top post, was approved by more than 6,000 delegates present.
The length of his new term was not specified.
In the NDP's first convention since 1992, party sources say, more than 6,000 party officials and other delegates will elect its general secretariat for the first time in the NDP's 24-year history, and review its internal bylaws.
Egyptians are watching the convention closely to see if Mubarak's son Gamal, a 39-year-old former banker, will replace longtime presidential confidant Yousef Wali as the party's secretary general.
Since Mubarak appointed Gamal to a high party post in early 2000, Egyptians have speculated that the ruling party was being used as a springboard to promote Gamal as a potential successor.
In recent months, the opposition paper Al-Arabi and other publications have predicted that Gamal was poised to take control of the party, especially after the August arrest of one of Wali's deputies on corruption charges.
However, party sources have played down the possibility of Wali's ouster.
Egypt imposes strict limits on the creation of political parties and on party activity, while the authorities intervene heavily in elections to prevent opposition candidates, particularly Islamists, from winning.
AFP