Sudan’s URRP leader to run for presidency in 2010
January 4, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The Umma Reform and Renewal Party (URRP) announced today that it has nominated its leader Mubarak Al-Fadil to run for president in the April 2010 elections making it the third party in the country to name its candidate.
The other major parties including the Umma party led by former Prime Minister Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) led by Mohamed Osman Al-Mirghani and Sudan people Liberation Movement (SPLM) led by First Vice President Salva Kiir has yet to name a contestant though a decision is expected to be made shortly.
Al-Fadil told reporters today following the announcement that the “political and legal environment is not suitable for conducting elections unless two key amendments are introduced” to reverse the current policies by the ruling party and making political concessions.
He expressed skepticism that the general elections would enjoy fair and free environment and called on the UN and international monitors to step up their efforts for the sake of ensuring the integrity of the elections.
Al-Fadil was appointed by Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir as a presidential adviser for economic affairs in 2002 before being removed in October 2004. He has became one of the fiercest critics of the NCP ever since.
This week the URRP leader accused the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) of formulating a plot through several members of the dissolved Umma Liberation Army (ULA), the military arm of the mainstream Umma party, to incriminate him in a plot to overthrow the government. ?
A statement by Al-Fadil’s office said that the ex-fighters refused to cooperate with the NISS in their plan. He also said that an unnamed senior Sudanese official earned him that his work is conflicting with the interests of the ruling NCP making him a target of assassination.
“My blood will be a fuel to peace and freedom in Sudan” Al-Fadil was quoted as saying but the party warned the authorities of any attempts to physically harm the leadership.
Al-Fadil was detained for four months in 2007 along with a number of retired army generals, and accused of planning a coup attempt. He was released after it turned out that an intelligence informant supplied inaccurate information to the government.
The URRP leader was the driving force behind bringing together the SPLM and other Northern opposition parties in Juba last September to tackle the issue related to the democratic transformation and the elections. The NCP has fiercely criticized the conference accusing the participants of seeking to topple the government.
(ST)