NUP denies claims of members’ participation in new government

November 28, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s opposition National Umma Party (NUP) has denied allegations that some of its individual members will participate in the new government.

The NUP refused to participate in Sudan’s first government since the secession of South Sudan in July after months of negotiations with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) who sought to include it.

In announcing its official rejection, the NUP vowed to adopt “civil disobedience” as a mean to oppose the NCP-led government.

However, the NCP’s senior official Qutbi Al-Mahdi has claimed that numerous NUP’s personalities have displayed a desire to participate in the new government.

“We know that many prominent members within the NUP will participate on individual basis,” Qutbi told reporters in the capital Khartoum on Sunday.

He further suggested that representation in the government is measured by the weight of the individual participants.

In a swift reaction to Qutbi’s statement, the NUP released a statement on Sunday reiterating its rejection to participate in the new government and emphasizing that none of its members would participate.

The statement undersigned by the NUP’s secretary-general Sidiq Isma’il slammed “rumormongers” and stressed that NUP’s members are highly committed to their party’s decisions even if their convictions are in conflict with those decisions which are taken in a climate of democracy and participation.

(ST)