Few surprises in Sudan’s new government

June 14, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The long awaited new cabinet in Sudan came at little surprise to most observers who expected the dominant National Congress Party (NCP) to keep many key figures in the post-election government.

The NCP won around 95 percent of parliamentary seats in the north in April’s elections, giving them more than the required two-thirds majority to make constitutional changes.

The former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) won most of the southern seats, around 20 percent of the total parliament.

The ruling party engaged in long discussions with the SPLM on their share of the new government as well as the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) despite the latter winning few seats in national assembly. The DUP leader Mohamed Osman Al-Mirghani had rejected the elections calling it fraudulent and accused the NCP of vote rigging.

The DUP and the Popular Congress Party (PCP) led by Hassan Al-Turabi had refused to join other opposition parties in their boycott of the elections. Both parties came after the elections to denounce the conduct of the polls and vowing not to be part of the new government.

However, the DUP later started talks with the NCP on participation but failed to agree on their share of representation in the government and it was also reported that Al-Mirghani insisted that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), an umbrella of northern opposition groups, be allowed to join.

Sudan official news agency (SUNA) reported today that Al-Mirghani returned home after a trip abroad and quoted one of the his aides as saying that the issue of participation in the new government is up to the DUP leader to decide on.

Al-Bashir issued a decree naming the ministers and state ministers in the 35-member government handing foreign ministry to its former state minister Ali Karti considered to be a hard-line Islamist. Karti replaced Deng Alor from the SPLM who was largely marginalized in the last year of his term.

Some sources have reported that former foreign ministers Mustafa Ismail and Lam Akol were candidates for the post.

The NCP & SPLM agreed to swap allocation of foreign ministry to oil ministry which was given to Lual Deng who was the state minister in the ministry of finance and national economy.

The order from the president split Sudan’s former Ministry of Energy and Mining into three — with separate ministries for oil, mining and electricity combined with dams.

Overall, twenty-four ministers were chosen from the NCP while eight of the ministries went to SPLM members. Three small parties received each a government ministry

The new government is supposed to prepare the country for the South Sudan referendum in 2011 by which Southerners will decide their fate in whether they want to secede or remain united with the north.

Abdel-Basit Sabdarat was off the new formation and the justice ministry he headed was awarded to Mohamed Bushara Dousa who was the head of the commission for the party affairs.

The former Undersecretary for foreign affairs Mutrif Sideeg was moved to become state minister at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.

(ST)