Sudan: Nafie downplays Mahdi’s claim on regime change dialogue with NCP

March 19, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The Vice-President of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in Sudan, Nafie Ali Nafie, on Monday played down revelations by the opposition leader Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi on his contacts with some NCP members to change the regime peacefully.

Al-Mahdi, who heads the National Umma Party (NUP), one of the largest opposition groups, disclosed on Sunday that he was conducting a dialogue with some members of the NCP, expressing confidence that it could result in a peaceful change of regime before the elections scheduled for 2014.

He further warned that the political and security situation in Sudan was rapidly deteriorating and there is no way to wait until the elections to change it.

Speaking to reporters in the capital Khartoum on Monday, Nafie said that the NCP members Al-Mahdi was referring to lack the ability to change the regime.

Nafie said that Al-Mahdi was “pinning his hopes on a mirage,” adding that the only opportunity for change would come when the elections take place in two years.

Al-Mahdi differs from other mainstream opposition groups on the approach to change the regime.

While allied opposition groups under the National Consensus Forces (NCF) call for a popular uprising to overthrow the government, Al-Mahdi opted for dialogue with the NCP in order to prevent what he describes as a doomsday scenario in which Sudan could descend into chaos and civil wars as a result of flaring conflicts in the country’s peripheries.

Last year, a spokesman for the NCP said there was a growing trend among party members to organize early elections.

The NCP won a landslide victory in Sudan’s general elections of April 2010 but the vote’s credibility was dented by reports of fraud and opposition boycotts.

(ST)