SPLM-N Agar calls for transpartisan alliance against al-Bashir’s re-election

May 15, 2018 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North-led by Malik Agar (SPLM-N Agar) welcomed the position of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP) over the opposition’s participation in the 2020 elections and called for a large alliance against al-Bashir’s re-election

The SPLM-N Agar has called since several months for the participation of the opposition in the 2020 general elections in Sudan on the condition that a peace deal is struck, freedoms are guaranteed and transitional arrangements are implemented to ensure free and fair elections.

While some opposition groups inside the country denounce such a call, the SCoP recently joined the position of the SPLM-N Agar and the National Umma Party (NUP) in this respect.

The SPLM-N spokesperson Mubarak Ardol issued a statement on Tuesday reiterating his Movement its full commitment to its alliances with the Sudan Call and Revolutionary Front.

Also, he called for a large front against attempts to amend the constitution particularly the articles preventing President Omer al-Bashir from running for a new mandate in 2020, as it is a transpartisan position.

“We welcome Islamists who want the change, resist and reject Bashir’s candidature as part of the broad front against constitutional amendments,” said the statement.

The success of the unconventional alliance in Iraq between Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr form one side and the communists and secular forces on the other side during the recent elections encourages more than one opposition group to propose to extend their hands even to some Islamists in the ruling National Congress Party who are in opposition to al-Bashir’s re-election in 2020.

The SPLM supports the use of election as a mechanism of resistance to ending the war and abolishing the totalitarianism, Ardol further stressed.

He underscored that “the issues of constitutional amendments and elections cannot be ignored and the opposition should discuss them in depth in its upcoming meeting,” adding they are part of the agenda paving the road to the achieve change in Sudan.

The opposition National Consensus Forces, gathering the communist party and pan-Arab nationalist groups, reject the call to participate in the 2020 election as they reject to negotiate a political settlement for the Sudanese crisis with the regime.

But for the Sudan Call forces, which are part of an African Union-led process to end the armed conflicts and achieve peace in Sudan, such move should be part of their political agenda to bring the regime to accept a negotiated democratic change.

The SCoP had asked to adjourn the opposition meeting in Paris in order to have the needed time to adopt a unified position over the issue.

(ST)