Islamic Movement urges members to vote for Sudan’s NCP in April elections
February 6, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s Islamic Movement (IM) has urged its members to vote for the ruling National congress Party (NCP) to secure a landslide victory in the general elections scheduled for April.
The IM was created by the NCP following the 1999 schism with its former leader Hassan al-Turabi and his supporters who formed the Popular Congress Party (PCP).
It was designed to exist as a parallel and broader political base to support the Islamist orientation of the NCP regime and rally Sufi and radical Islamist groups under its umbrella, while excluding the PCP.
IM secretary-general, al-Zubair Ahmed al-Hassan, who addressed the opening session of the meeting, said they need to make intellectual, political and rallying efforts to meet challenges facing the movement, pointing to the effective role of the Movement in the success of the NCP rule.
He called for building on the positive aspects of the 25-year Islamic experience in Sudan and getting rid of the negative aspects besides practicing Shura to fill the gaps in the political activity, stressing the need to avoid difference and divisions.
Al-Hassan instructed IM’s membership to effectively participate in the upcoming elections, pointing the country would face significant dangers if elections were not held on time.
He underscored the need to consider elections as “fighting in the battlefront”, calling upon IM’s members to overcome their differences in order to secure decisive win.
“We must make utmost efforts, define roles and optimise performance in order to achieve success, Allah (God) willing,” he said.
“The biggest challenge which faces the IM is how to maintain the Islamic project,” he added.
Al-Hassan noted the previous year saw the completion of the organisational structures among the bases of IM, saying the Movement is in a better position to further activate organisational and Da’wa (call) activities.
The chairman of the Shura Council, Mahdi Ibrahim, for his part, said the meeting convenes in extremely complex regional and international circumstances which have great influence on the Islamic project and the Muslim nation’s aspirations of renaissance.
He said that Islam is being targeted by its own Muslim sons who became tools for distorting the image of Islam, pointing to the gruesome incident of burning a captive Jordanian pilot alive by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Ibrahim underscored that Sudan remained steady in the face of challenges and has not bowed except for Allah, calling upon the IM and the government to renew the covenant with Allah and engage in the upcoming elections with individual and collective determination.
(ST)