AN EGYPTIAN COURT has ordered the dissolution of the country’s former ruling party, meeting a major demand of protesters trying to ensure that the party that monopolised the country’s politics and government for decades is definitively broken after the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

The court verdict against the National Democratic Party, which must now permanently disband, appeared to signal that the Egypt’s ruling military was trying to move more swiftly to meet protester demands.

Activists have feared that despite Mubarak’s fall and the arrest of many of its top leaders, the remnants of the National Democratic Party could still try to hold power in the country. In particular, the NDP could still have been a powerful contender in the first post-Mubarak parliament elections due in September.

Protesters set fire to the NDP’s headquarters during the 18 days of mass demonstrations that led to Mubarak’s removal on February 11. The drab but imposing building overlooking the Nile River remains charred, its windows smashed and its walls covered with anti-Mubarak graffiti.

Today’s verdict came from the Supreme Administrative Court, whose decisions cannot be appealed. The party must now be dissolved, and its assets and offices handed over to the state. Lawyers had raised a suit demanding its dissolution, accusing the party of corruption.

For years, the NDP held an unbreakable monopoly over Egypt’s political life. It consistently held overwhelming majorities in parliament, largely because of widespread vote rigging during elections. Its members controlled the hierarchy of Egypt’s vast and powerful bureaucracy.

It also effectively could determine what other parties could be formed, since any new party had to be approved by a body dominated by the NDP. As a result, Egypt’s recognised opposition parties are largely weak with little grassroots support.

The ruling comes only days after the ousted Mubarak and his sons were put under detention for interrogation on allegations of corruption and responsibility for the killings of protesters by police.

The protest movement had been pushing for both steps for weeks, with little response from the Armed Forces’ Supreme Council, the body of top generals that has held power since Mubarak’s downfall.

AP