International community behind proposal to postpone legislative election – Turabi

November 12, 2009 (PARIS) — The proposal of postponing the parliamentary elections in Sudan was put forward by countries in the international community “to please” the Sudanese president, the leader of the opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) said today.

The council of political parties established by the government of national unity (GoNU) announced a set of proposals to be presented to the two major parties in order to reconcile their positions on some controversial issues. At the forefront of these proposals, was the separation of executive from legislative elections.

At a meeting held yesterday, the council said that the proposals are justified by the complexities of the legislative elections, which are linked to the border demarcation and the output of the census which is rejected by the SPLM.

The PCP leader, Hassan Al-Turabi, who is on a private visit to Paris for medical tests, told a number of journalists at a briefing held on Thursday that this proposition was made by the U.S., United Kingdom as well as other western countries.

This is the first trip abroad to Turabi was barred in April 2009 by the Sudanese security boarding the airplane to France.

Turabi said his party rejects this idea because it aims to ease the pressures faced by the embattled Sudanese President who is a target of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In accordance with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), at the end of interim period in 2009, general elections would be held to elect the president of the republic and the governors of the state. Also the national parliament, southern Sudan and the states assemblies have to be elected in order to replace the interim legislative chambers.

Observers say the National Congress Party (NCP) believes the upcoming elections would allow it to counter the ICC decision and possibly freeze it. Al-Bashir once reelected could assert that this new legitimacy would reinforce his position and demand again to suspend the ICC jurisdiction.

The UN Security Council discussed the ICC indictment of the Sudanese president on July 31, 2009 but failed to suspend the jurisdiction of the war crimes court when it had been requested by African and Arab countries. Britain, France and the United States delegates said Sudan should cooperate with the court and seek seriously to end the conflict. Washington further stressed the need to combat impunity.

The partial postponement of the elections also seen by the international community as a means to save money as they fear having to pay a hefty cost to ensure the organization of the elections and for less than a year if the South vote for the establishment of a new state, all this money would go down the drain.

The Sudanese opposition figure also underlined the focus of the international community on the ruling NCP and the SPLM or Darfur rebels at the time where they ignore the opposition political parties.

He further regretted the approach of the international special envoys who deal in their daily action only with Darfur issue.

“They deal with Darfur conflict as separate conflict and ignore the rest of the national political situation,” he said.

Turabi also said his party is committed to the CPA which had been negotiated by the NCP and the SPLM and signed in Nairobi on January 9, 2005.

“We are bound by the CPA, despite the reservations we have on the conditions of its negotiations between only two parties while it deals with the future of the country because it is an international agreement,” he said.

He slammed the “poor” management of the NCP for its partnership with the SPLM, and blamed the federal government for not contributing in the development of southern Sudan since the signing of the 2005 agreement.

“In spite of the wealth sharing included in the CPA, the federal authorities have to implement development projects in the south because it has to contribute to the welfare of the Sudanese citizens in the semi-autonomous region”

Following a series of divergences with the military who implemented in June 1989 a bloodless coup d’état planned by the National Islamic Front that he had led, Turabi founded the Popular Congress Party and since he had been several times arrested.

In 2000 he established the PCP after a falling out with Bashir and his Voce president Ali Osman Taha. In 1999 Turabi, who had been the head of the National Assembly, was relieved from his position as speaker.

Turabi at the time, asked the military to implement the latest step in their political plans to keep the Islamic state in Sudan within a democratic system. But Al-Bashir and a number of the party leadership figures rejected Turabi’s plans particularly his demand for political freedoms. He also asked Bashir to accept the election of the governors and other important posted. But Bashir several months later ordered his arrest.

(ST)