Sudan’s NCP strips key figure from leadership positions: reports
April 5, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The head of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) bloc in the national assembly Ghazi Salah al-Deen al-Attabani has been removed from his position as the party’s secretary for parliamentary affairs, according to multiple news reports and his Facebook page.
It is not clear why the former presidential adviser who was the key figure in the Doha Darfur negotiations lost his title.
Al-Attabani is widely seen as a symbol of the reformist faction within the NCP which is pushing for separating the NCP from the Islamist movement and embracing democratic transformation as well as promoting new faces to leadership positions.
This month he raised eyebrows by suggesting that Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir is constitutionally barred from running again for presidency.
He later clarified his remarks by stressing that he was not making a judgment about Bashir but was referring rather to the legal restrictions. Bashir said last month that he will step down at the end of his term in 2015.
The veteran Islamist also withdrew his candidacy for Secretary General of the Islamic Movement and left its convention last year due to what he saw as interferences by influential government figures who pushed through amendments he opposed.
At the time an NCP figure who closely followed the workings of the convention told Sudan Tribune that Al-Attabani pulled out after finding out that the NCP leadership have determined to choose someone else for that position.
Al-Attabani’s name has been also been linked to the 13 Islamist military and security officers arrested last November and accused of plotting to overthrow the regime. He has denied however that he was summoned in connection with the coup attempt.
(ST)