Tomorrow July 10th Sudan govt unconstitutional, opposition parties say

July 8, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and Northern opposition parties exchanged strong words and sharp criticisms on the constitutional status of the government after July.

July 9th mark the deadline set by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) for conducting the presidential and parliamentary elections on national and state levels.

However, Sudan electoral board decided to delay elections twice since its establishment a year ago citing the need for further preparations and resolving crucial outstanding issues. The elections are now scheduled for April 2010.

The Northern opposition parties assert that per the CPA, the current government should be disbanded as of July 9th and a new interim cabinet should be formed to prepare the country for elections.

The former prime minister Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi and head of the Umma party said in a press conference today that the NCP “stubborn” policies and insistence on exclusion of other political powers created a “series of crisis” in the country.

Al-Mahdi said that the NCP is leading the country towards secession of the North from the South when a referendum is held in the South in 2011.

The opposition leader said that the solution is in forming a broad based national government to run the country and ensure “fair and free elections”.

The NCP have recently fell out with the Umma party following an agreement signed between the latter and the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

The ruling party officials accused the Umma party of seeking to topple the government in through this agreement “with an armed movement fighting the state”.

Al-Mahdi today dismissed the charges saying that it was the NCP which carried out the 1989 coup ousting the democratically elected government.

“They are the experts in conspiracy and stole the power at night. We were in power through elections and we will return to it through popular will” he said.

Both JEM and the Umma party agreed in the document they signed that the legal status of government as “unconstitutional” after July 9th saying it creates a “constitutional vacuum that can only be addressed through a national government based on national consensus”.

The leading figure in the National Democratic alliance (NDA) Farouk Abu Essa said that the government could have avoided this situation by amending the constitution through the national assembly two months before July 9th.

Abu Essa added that opposition parties do not trust the Supreme Court and therefore will not challenge the constitutionality of the government.

Furthermore, Abu Essa recommended that a political consensus needs to be reached to form a transitional government and postpone elections till 2011.

The deputy leader of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) said that the opposition parties do not trust the government describing it as a “totalitarian” one adding that any elections cannot be fair under it.

But the powerful presidential assistant Nafi Ali Nafi directed fierce attacks at the opposition parties describing them of being “agents of [Western embassies and hotels”.

Nafi accused the opposition parties of seeking to split the country and undermine its unity.

The NCP leading figure also said that the parties sought to topple the government through submitting “fabricated reports” to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

He described a memo filed by the parties to the Supreme Court on the government’s legality as “frail”.

“The pursuit of the traitors and magicians will not work…The Ingaz [Salvation government] will remain,” Nafi said.

The issue of the legal status of the government has been hotly debated over the last few months. Opposition parties say that the government of national unity (GoNU) is responsible for elections delay.

The deputy Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ali Mahmood Hassanein wrote a legal Op-ed saying that the electoral commission does not have the legal authority to set dates for the polls to open.

Hassanein said that the constitution said that the July 9th 2009 date is a firm date that the commission has the right to delay elections only once for 60 days until September 9th 2009.

Furthermore the DUP official said that the delay can only be under two circumstances including emergency law or unexpected event threatening the country.

He added that the government of post-July 9th 2009 will be illegitimate and that a constitutional vacuum will occur unless a new cabinet is formed consisting of technocrats while considering the South’s power share according to the CPA.

“Otherwise the current regime would have led another coup on July 9th 2009 and all people must treat it accordingly,” Hassanein wrote.

In the past both the NCP and the SPLM brushed off the calls for an interim broad based government.

The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir accused unspecified political powers of fearing to face the elections and want to backtrack on it.

“We pledged for peaceful exchange of power. When it got close we see some talking in a different language and attempt to instigate problems and obstacles. The elections are on time” Al-Bashir said.

“They should prepare to return to the people and their popular bases. Whoever is chosen by the people we will hand him power” he added.

Al-Bashir said that the electoral commission is the only body that can set the elections date not the NCP.

The ex-Southern rebel group Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) said it does not see any reason for the formation of an interim government.

(ST)