Minnawi calls to include Sudanese Islamists in transitional institutions
October 20, 2021 (KHARTOUM) – Minni Minnawi, Sudan People Liberation Movement (SLM-MM) leader called to amend the Constitutional Document to allow political forces that shared power with the former regime to participate in the ongoing transition.
The document governing the transition period bans the participation in the four-year transition of any political forces that were part of the former regime such as the Islamist Popular Congress Party (PCP) founded by the late Hassan al-Turabi.
Speaking before a crowd gathered at the presidential palace square where they organize a sit-in for the dissolution of the government, Minnawi called to amend the Constitutional Document to enable all the political forces to take part in the transition, except for the banned National Congress Party (NCP) of Omer al-Bashir.
“The National Congress Party has fallen and its symbols are in prison. The Document prevented the participation of those who took part in the previous regime, but the Popular Congress Party is not the National Congress, as they struggled for 20 years, yet they called them remnants, we must all participate,” he stressed.
The late Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi founded the Popular Congress Party in 1999, following a rift with his disciples ten years after having had orchestrated the military coup in 1989 that brought them to power.
In 2015, al-Turabi reconciled with al-Bashir and the PCP joined his governments until his collapse in April 2019.
The leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Gibril Ibrahim who is a former member of the National Islamic Front was the first to call for the participation of the excluded political groups in the transition, except the NCP.
The two Darfuri leaders have recently established the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) National Accord after accusing the ruling FFC coalition of seeking to exclude others.
The National Accord faction also calls to dissolve the second transitional government and to allow the participation of more political groups, saying the ruling coalition does not represent the whole country.
For its part, the PCP released a statement on Tuesday, supporting calls to dissolve the transitional government and called for a comprehensive national consensus and an inclusive dialogue.
Minnawi reiterated the National Accord’s demands to dissolve the government saying the legitimacy of the transitional cabinet should be based on the Transitional Legislative Council, not the ruling coalition.
The cabinet decided to form a six-member committee to resolve the political crisis which requires amending the Constitutional Document.
The six-member will be composed of two delegates from the ruling coalition, two from the National Accord group and two from the military component.
It is not clear if the FFC forces would accept to take part in this configuration.
(ST)