Sudan’s NCP preparing to endorse new cabinet: official
November 24, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – An official in Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) announced that the party is putting the finishing touches to the anticipated cabinet reshuffle.
Al-Mustafa dismissed lists produced on several news website that allegedly contained the new formation calling it “baseless”.
He stressed that president Omer Hassan al-Bashir has engaged in intensive consultations with his own party and listened to different views.
“This issue is in the final stages to be approved by the leadership bureau and once these steps are completed it will be announced to the people of Sudan,” al-Mustafa said. He made no mention of whether new opposition parties will join the new cabinet as was suggested by other officials in the past.
The spokesman disclosed that his party established 10 subcommittees to provide new theses on the process of reform within the party as well as improving the political and executive performance in the NCP.
Al-Mustafa said that the party leadership has the political will to achieve the stated goals of the reform and development process.
“We are working to initiate and invent new projects and programs at this stage in order to provide ideas fit to become a new approach presented during the desired process of reform and development,” he said.
The reshuffle comes amidst deep divisions within the ruling party in the wake of the NCP decision to expel three leading members and temporarily suspend nine others.
Last September, 31 NCP members including the party’s ex-head of its parliamentary caucus Ghazi Salah Al-Deen Al-Attabani presented a memo to president Bashir criticizing the government’s decision to remove subsidies on fuel and other basic commodities, saying it “harshly” impacted Sudanese citizens.
They chided the government for the excessive violence used against protestors who took the streets against the subsidies cut and called for deep political and economic reforms.
They also urged Bashir to form a mechanism for national reconciliation comprised of various political forces and assign the economic dossier to a professional national economic team.
“The legitimacy of your rule has never been at stake like it is today” they said in their letter to Bashir which was seen as a direct challenge to the president who is now the country’s longest serving leader.
Bashir formed a committee headed by national assembly speaker Ibrahim Al-Tahir to query those whose names appeared in the petition that was circulated publicly.
The commission of inquiry handed down the dismissal and suspension decisions that were later signed off by other NCP bodies.
Al-Attabani and others later declared his intention to leave the party and form a new one that would “bring new hope to Sudan”.
(ST)