Umma party poses conditions for national dialogue with government

January 17, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Umma National Party (UNP) led by former Prime Minister, Sadiq Al-Mahdi, said accepting a call launched by the Sudanese First Vice-President to engage in a national but asked him to invite them with his former capacity as head of parliamentary opposition.

Taha in a speech at the opening of the Darfur Regional Authority Legislative Council called on the Sudanese opposition forces to participate in a comprehensive national dialogue about core issues such as the country’s new constitution and Darfur crisis.

The Umma party stated that it wouldn’t mind accepting the call for a comprehensive national dialogue, provided that it comes from him as the leader of the elected parliamentary opposition before the coup d’état of 1989.

The opposition statement reminded Taha that he should be “committed to the oath he has taken in 1986 to safeguard democracy and respect the constitutional legitimacy.”

The DUP further expressed hopes that Taha would became “a believer in the need to move to a new square where things would be placed in their natural order and everybody takes all his rights so that the path would be paved for democratic transformation”.

The statement added that the first opposition party has kept addressing the leaders of the ruling party to acknowledge that they possess power and the Umma Party possesses electoral and constitutional legitimacy, and that such dialogue would have spared the country a lot of the disasters and crises that have occurred.

The spokesman for the DUP General Secretariat Naguib Khair Abdel Wahab, said that it is time for the National Congress Party to be aware that there is no way out for the country other than just starting transitional arrangements to create a favorable climate for dialogue and put the country on the threshold of democratic transformation desired.