New initiative to settle political crisis postponed

August 31, August 2022 (KHARTOUM) – Disagreements have led to the postponement of the launch of the Sudanese Initiative for Constitutional Arrangements scheduled to be announced on Thursday.

Sudan Tribune revealed that some coalitions and political groups plan to launch a new initiative on the formation of a new transitional cabinet including the military component and a constitutional declaration.

The leak of the details of this initiative confused some of its members, while others distanced themselves as it involves some supporters of the former regime and calls for the participation of the military component.

Some of the participants in the initiative said they are not backed by the military component or coordinating with the People of Sudan initiative backed by the banned National Congress Party.

They added that it is launched by the political forces that encouraged former Prime Minister Hamdok to sign a political agreement with the military component without the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) before their removal from the broad coalition in November 2021.

Another source involved in the Sudanese Initiative said that their enterprise aims to reach a compromise among the civil forces before submitting it to the military component for implementation.

“The initiative does not aim at any unilateral negotiations with the military component,” he added.

The parties plan to hand over their initiative to the tripartite mechanism, which will combine the different initiatives in a draft constitutional declaration to be discussed by the stakeholders.

The groups involved in the new coalition are the Unionist Democratic Party, Sudanese Baath Party, Republican Party faction of Hyder al-Safi, Unionist Party, and Umma party of Mubarak al-Fadil.

For his part, the Political Secretary of the Popular Congress Party (PCP), Kamal Omer, told the Sudan Tribune that they will not participate in the Sudanese initiative for the constitutional declaration.

Omer said that the participation of army leaders in any constitutional arrangements or sharing power with them means a repetition of the political crisis and a failure to benefit from the previous experience.

“Most of the proposed initiatives seek to prolong the transition period, enable the army to gain power and satisfy the international community. The military component is not far from the political struggle through the manipulation of some Sufi groups and orders and independent personalities,” he added.

FFC Spokesman Wajdi Saleh said the Sudanese Initiative is a façade for the military component while the political crisis could not be resolved without the establishment of full civil authority.

“The army commander-in-chief and supporters of the former regime stand behind many initiatives proposed to settle the current political stalemate,” he further stressed.

He regretted that these initiatives seek to legitimate military rule, while the FFC groups and the masses seek to bring it down.

(ST)