Umma Party moves to end bitter rivalry ahead of elections

February 13, 2010 (KHARTOUM) –The largest Northern opposition party in Sudan took a widely expected step moving to bring reunite its ranks ahead of the April elections against the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) among others.

The Umma party leader Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi and his cousin Mubarak Al-Fadil who heads the Umma Renewal and Reform Party (URRP) have agreed to unite again after the latter defected in 2002 to join the government led by president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir contrary to the party’s line.

Al-Fadil left the Umma Party after differing with Al-Mahdi on the issue of participating in the government dominated by the NCP but al-Mahdi rejected the idea of joining a “non-democratically elected government”.

Later both men traded bitter accusations publicly and in private circles for failures and mishaps within the Umma Party and even went as far as personal and family matters.

Al-Fadil was appointed by Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir as a presidential adviser for economic affairs in 2002 before being removed in October 2004. He has became one of the fiercest critics of the NCP ever since.

The Umma party said in a statement that Al-Mahdi and URRP deputy leader Younis Abdullah met on Friday and agreed to “work together with reconciliatory spirit and remove all psychological barriers and social normalization”; “unite political agenda to run in the elections and face the challenges”; “allowing popular bases to work on avoiding overlapping candidates and agree on the figure with the most likelihood in electoral win”.

Al-Mahdi would head a mechanism that includes URRP figures to work on ironing out the details of this agreement.

Al-Fadil told Agence France Presse (AFP) from Juba that he and Mahdi “did not yet discuss the question of who will be the presidential candidate”. Both men are running in the presidential elections though it is agreed that Al-Fadil chances of getting significant number of votes compared to Al-Mahdi are slim.

The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Bashir who ruled the country for over two decades and faces an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) will be running against eleven other candidates from different parties including the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) which controls the south of the country

The NCP nudged the SPLM last month to withdraw its candidate Yasir Arman by saying it will not nominate any of its members to run against South Sudan president Salva Kiir. However, the ex-Southern rebel group rejected the offer saying that its candidate Yasir Arman will still stand against Bashir.

Arman, 49, is counting on the solid support of the secessionist south Sudan, while Mahdi’s main support base is in the north.

It is widely believed that the dominant party is concerned that between the 12 candidates Bashir may not attain the 51% required to win the elections forcing a second round in which opposition parties may back Arman.

This week the former US president Jimmy Carter told reporters that it is unlikely that Bashir will win a majority in the first round. However, the NCP dismissed the speculation saying that its leader will win comfortably in the first round.

(ST)