Sudan: President meets prominent members of opposition party

Sudan: President meets prominent members of opposition party
Leading members of the opposition Popular Congress Party [PCP] yesterday met President Umar al-Bashir to discuss normalizing relations between the two parties [the ruling National Congress Party [NCP] and PCP]. The meeting further dealt with a new initiative to release political detainees, sanctioning general freedoms and financial compensation for damages incurred by the PCP as a result of the suspension of its activities and confiscation of its properties in 2001.
Informed sources told Al-Sahafah that the meeting was attended by a committee commissioned by the PCP leader, Dr Hasan al-Turabi, including the prominent PCP members Adam al-Tahir Hamdun, Sidiq al-Ahmar and Dr Ibrahim Habbani. Prominent NCP members including Dr Mustafa Uthman Isma’il and Al-Haj Ata al-Manan also attended the meeting.
Although PCP sources refused to comment on the meeting they did confirm that it had taken place and that the meeting with President al-Bashir followed the party’s call for national accord. The sources stressed that the aim of the meeting was not to start a bilateral dialogue to resolve differences between the two parties. They said the committee had further been given limited authorization and agreement guidelines it could not surpass without referring to the PCP’s competent bodies.

— 

Sudan: Opposition party ‘happy’ to form political alliance with ruling party
276 words
2 March 2008
01:59 pm GMT
BBC Monitoring Middle East
English
(c) 2008 The British Broadcasting Corporation. All Rights Reserved. No material may be reproduced except with the express permission of The British Broadcasting Corporation.

Text of report by pro-government newspaper Akhir Lahzah on 2 March

The prominent member of the [opposition] Popular Congress Party [PCP], Al-Mahbub Abd-al-Salam, has stressed that more time is needed before the dialogue with the [ruling] National Congress Party reaches an agreement and a decision is issued, after approval by the parties’ higher leaderships, in this regard. Abd-al-Salam went on to say he was happy with the idea of forming a political alliance between the two parties during the forthcoming elections.

Speaking to Akhir Lazha, Abd-al-Salam said talk about merging the two parties was premature but at the same time said it was agreeable for the PCP, NCP and [opposition] National Umma Party [NUP] to have unified list in the upcoming elections. He explained that similarities in the electoral programmes of these parties could bring them together and that their alliance in one electoral list would help electors to choose and avoid confusion over choosing between the similar programmes. He further pointed out that forming alliances was proof a developed democratic process and cited the example of elections in the UK and USA where voters are only given two options to choose from.

Abd-al-Salam further said it was likely that that the elections determined by the Naivasha agreement between the two partners – the NCP and [former rebel] Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, would be postponed and said he expected the PCP, NUP and armed movements would boycott the elections if Darfur is excluded from them.

Source: Akhir Lahzah, Khartoum, in Arabic 2 Mar 08