No agreement yet on civilian transition in Sudan with military component : FFC
October 11, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – The Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) said no agreement has been reached yet with the military component and vowed to consult the basis before signing it.
The FFC leadership recently held several meetings facilitated by the QUAD and the tripartite mechanism with the hope to strike a political settlement to end the coup of October 2021 and restoring the civilian-led transition.
Keen to end growing criticism about the lack of consultations with the allied civil society groups and popular bases that support the large coalition the FFC executive body issued a statement saying that no agreement has been yet
The statement said they tasked a committee to meet the military component when they had been informed about the acceptance of the military component of the transitional constitution proposed by the Sudanese Bar Association but they have some observations they want to discuss with them.
After the meeting, “The Executive Bureau decided to draft a position paper on the issues of ending the coup and establishing a full democratic civil (transitional) authority,” said the statement
The forces of the revolution and the forces agreeing on the draft transitional constitution will be consulted in this paper in order to “form a consensus base among the broadest base of stakeholders in the civil democratic transition,” further stressed the statement.
Al-Sharq newspaper reported that the two sides diverge over the representation of the military establishment in the Security and Defence Council.
The military component wants to be represented by the Minister of Defence, while the political forces propose to represent them by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
It is not clear if this is a demand to appoint the defence minister.
However, the FFC reiterated they would only accept the “establishment of a full civilian authority” Also, they said the military establishment should distance itself from the political scene and form one professional and the national army.
(ST)