Sudan’s opposition wavers over constitution talks
KHARTOUM, April 30 (Reuters) – Sudan’s largest opposition parties have still not confirmed they will take part in drawing up a new constitution for the country just hours before the talks are due to start on Saturday, the foreign minister said.
Despite having pledged their support to the process, their hesitation could overshadow the start of the negotiations, which are a major step towards forming a new government after a peace deal ended more than two decades of civil war in the south.
If the major opposition parties did not take part, it would weaken the broad appeal hoped for in the charter.
“We are still awaiting the result of final discussions with opposition forces over their participation in this important national work,” Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters in Khartoum.
There was no immediate comment from the opposition parties.
Khartoum’s government signed the peace deal with the former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in January. The deal will form a new government of national unity and will share wealth and power.
The two sides hope the constitution will merely be a translation of the agreement into a legal framework, and have tried to keep control over the constitutional commission to ensure this.
But the powerful opposition has demanded a bigger share of the seats on the commission in order to have what it calls a real say in what will be the basis of Sudan’s new government.
Ismail said the largest northern opposition parties, who had previously stated they would participate, were now not sure they would take part.
The parties include Islamist Hassan al-Turabi’s Popular Congress Party and the broad-based Democratic Unionist Party.
The popular Umma party, headed by the last democratically elected leader in Sudan Sadiq al-Mahdi, has already said it would not take part in the commission.
“We will know in a few hours who will taking part in the commission finally,” Ismail said.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir will speak at the opening of the commission’s work. SPLM leader John Garang will also address the commission by telephone.
Under the deal, Garang will become first vice president of the new government but has refused to return to Khartoum until the government of national unity is formed.
The commission will work for six weeks and then once the new constitution is approved by the parliament and the SPLM’s general assembly, a new government will be sworn in.
The southern peace deal does not cover a separate conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region.