1977 and endowed these bodies the official status of political parties in preparation for upcoming parliamentary elections. On 9 July 1978, Sadat announced the formation of his own political party drawing from the centre wing of the ASU, the National Democratic Party. It was formally approved on 2 October 1978. Soon thereafter, some 250 MPs of the People's Assembly hurried to join the President's new party. Dr. Maye Kassem of the American University in Cairo summarizes the transition from the ASU to the NDP thusly: This move was undoubtedly related to the fact that the President's party would ensure for its members' direct access to state resources. The main point, however, is that since most of the NDP's members were originally members of the disbanded ASU, its creation was more the result of presidential instigation than of pressures from an organized constituency. Put differently, the mass conversion from "socialist" to "democratic" ideology implied not only the desire to remain under direct presidential patronage but also that the emergence of the ruling NDP was no more reflective of constituency interests than the ASU was under Nasser's party system. The left wing of the ASU would become the National Progressive Unionist Party, while the right wing would become the Liberal Socialists Party. The Committee for the Affairs of Political Parties, commonly known as the Political Parties Committee (PPC), was created after the implementation of the multi-party system to both regulate party activities in addition to license new parties within the guidelines of Law 40. Law 40 empowered a committee chaired by the NDP – the speaker of the Shura Council – to suspend other parties' activities "in the national interest." It was composed of six regime-linked individuals: the minister of interior, the minister of justice, the state minister for the affairs of the People's Assembly, and three judicial figures appointed by the president's ministers. Since its creation in 1978, the NDP held no less than three-quarters of the seats in the People's Assembly. The ideology of the party remained purposefully vague and open to interpretation. As a result, the President and his government could pass any legislation without appearing to compromise the Party's "official" standing. Opposition to Sadat increased from 1977 onward in the wake of his economic reforms and peace initiative with Israel. Sadat reacted with repression and open hostility toward the opposition. In response to the 1977 bread riots, Sadat