Sudan constitution committee to start work Saturday
KHARTOUM, April 27 (AFP) — A committee of former warring parties tasked with drafting a transitional constitution for Sudan will meet next Saturday despite a boycott by major opposition groups, Sudan’s foreign minister said.
“The constitutional commission will meet next Saturday to start its work of laying down an interim constitution for the Sudan,” Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters, adding that the meetings would begin “in spite of the absence of some political parties”.
He said Khartoum “still hopes that the opposition parties will change their mind during the next three days and declare willingness to take part in laying down the constitution.”
The constitution is expected to clear the way for the formation of a national unity government and mark the beginning of a six-year transitional period called for in a January 9, 2005 peace deal between Khartoum and former southern rebels.
The war pitted the mainly Christian and animist south against the Muslim-dominated central government based in the north, killing an estimated 1.5 million people with four million others displaced.
The 60-strong National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC), formed last Saturday, should have completed its work six weeks after the deal was inked, but progress was held up by squabbling over its composition.
The ruling National Congress party and the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) insisted on applying general power-sharing quotas agreed upon in the January deal, which give them 52 percent and 28 percent of the seats respectively, leaving other parties a paltry 20 percent and no power to block decisions.
But at least 10 opposition groups, among them the influential Islamist Umma party and the Democratic Unionist Party, have threatened to boycott the constitution drafting, charging that the NCRC was not representative of the country’s political landscape.
The powerful National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a loose coalition of northern organizations which oppose the ruling party also seeks inclusion in the January peace deal.
SPLM’s leader John Garang agreed to try to convince Khartoum to involve the NDA in the north-south deal, officials said Wednesday.
Khartoum and the SPLM expect the interim constitution to be in place by July when the interim period demanded by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between north and south is due to commence.
A referendum is due to be held on the south’s self-determination at the end of the six-year period.