North Sudan: Rifts emerge within opposition coalition over NUP-NCP dialogue

February 17, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The simmering discord among the coalition of mainstream opposition parties in North Sudan has finally come into view when opposition parties today distanced themselves from the current dialogue held between the National Umma Party (NUP) and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP).

Opposition parties allied under the umbrella of the National Consensus Forces (NCF) were outraged when the NUP leader Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi held a surprise meeting in January with President Al-Bashir at a time when they were pushing for confrontation with the regime.

The meeting fueled rumors that Al-Mahdi was on his way to agreeing a separate power-sharing deal with the NCP and assume some posts in the government.

However, Al-Mahdi strongly denied that his meeting was aimed at agreeing participation in the government, and that the meeting’s sole purpose was to discuss “national agendas.”

The former prime minister stressed that his party wants a new constitution, brotherhood accord with the South, securing basic freedoms, resolving Darfur crisis, new economic policy, realistic handling of the standoff with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and a transitional government.

A press statement released on Thursday by the political secretary of the Islamic opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP), Kamal Umar, said that the NUP’s recent stances did not represent NCF parties.

Kamal Umar said that the “national agendas” proposed by the NUP leader Al-Mahdi to the NCP “concerns only himself” and that the current “bilateral” dialogue was not mandated by the NCF which set clear preconditions for dialogue with the NCP.

He noted that the NCF wants the release of detainees, reversing recent increases in prices, a national forum to resolve Darfur and the formation of a transitional government to replace the existing government.

The PCP veteran Islamist leader Hassan Al-Turabi has been detained without charge since January.

Kamal Umar said that the positions adopted by Al-Mahdi had confounded the rest of the opposition, which has requested clarifications on the facts of the meeting.

North Sudan is grappling with economic malaises manifested in a shortage of foreign currency reserves and loss of oil revenues as a result of the secession of the oil-producing South Sudan. The government recently adopted austerity measures including cuts in subsidies for food and petro products as well as curbing imports of several commodities.

(ST)