JEM-Dabago to run for Darfur authority chairmanship
July 21, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The former rebel Justice and Equality Movement faction led by Bakheit Abdallah Dabago (JEM-Dabago) on Tuesday said it intends to nominate one of its members as candidate for the position of chairman of the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA).
In line with the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), the chairperson of the regional body is appointed by the president of the republic.
“The President of the Republic of Sudan shall appoint from the Movements, the DRA Chairperson, who shall preside over the DRA Executive Organ,” says the DDPD.
Tijani al-Sissi who was the leader of the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) was appointed as DRA chairperson on 21 September 2011.
In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Tuesday, JEM-Dabago political secretary Nahar Osman Nahar said they will nominate a candidate to be the chairperson of the DRA during the next couple of days, stressing his movement “is a major signatory of the DDPD”.
He added that the move is consistent with the fact that all executive and legislative positions of the DRA should be filled by mutual consensus among the DDPD signatories who have been mentioned in president Bashir’s decree to extend the DRA’s mandate.
The Doha text is signed by the LJM on 14 July 2011 and the JEM-Dabajo on 6 April 2013. However, in March 2015 LJM split into two factions one headed by Sissi and the other by his former secretary general Bahar Idris Abu Garda.
Nahar expressed hope that the upcoming period would witness further cooperation among the DDPD signatories in order to implement the agreement and conduct the administrative referendum as well as broadening participation in the peace process and completing development process and the return of IDPs and refugees.
Sources close to the file in the Sudanese capital say Sissi who bedsides the chairmanship also controls the key positions in the DRA is in a difficult situation after the dissidence of Abu Garda group.
Also, last month the ruling National Congress Party was agreed by the sudden withdrawal of the National Liberation and Justice Party (NLJP) of al-Sissi from the national government on 17 June before to resume its participation ten days after.
It worth to mention that Abu Garda was a former leading member in the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) before to break away in 2007 after a difference with its founding leader the late Khalil Ibrahim.
According to the DDPD, in protocol, the DRA chairperson comes directly after the two vice-presidents and before the presidential assistants.
The DRA was established to serve as the major body for implementing the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) signed between the government of Sudan and the former rebel Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) in 2011.
(ST)