Sudan’s upcoming cabinet may accomodate NCP reformists: official
July 23, 2013, (KHARTOUM) – The ruling National Congress Party’s (NCP) leading figure, Qutbi Al-Mahdi, has not ruled out the possibility that leaders of the reformist movement within the party could join the government in the anticipated cabinet reshuffle.
Last week, media reports speculated that two of the NCP’s reformist figures including the former intelligence director Salah Gosh and the ex-presidential adviser Ghazi Salah al-Deen al-Attabani, would join the new government.
However, earlier this week, al-Attabani, dismissed the upcoming cabinet changes saying that it will be a change in faces but not in programs.
The former presidential adviser added that a change in approach and policies is needed to tackle the problems facing the country.
Al-Mahdi expressed fear that the coming cabinet reshuffle may not bring about radical changes in the government because it comes in the middle of the road to the upcoming general elections in 2015.
He stressed in press statements at the parliament on Tuesday, that the opposition National Umma Party (NUP) has not yet decided on the possibility of joining the government unlike the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) and the Popular Congress Party (PCP) who swiftly rejected the idea.
The NCP official affirmed that the party is not currently negotiate with the NUP and acknowledged that the latter is officially part of the opposition, adding “but we haven’t given up hope on its participation”.
Al-Mahdi underscored that the NCP is consulting with its allies in the government regarding the cabinet reshuffle which include mainly the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) led by Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani.
There have been mounting signs of divisions within the NCP and frustration particularly within the younger generations in the party about the lack of change in the leadership many of whom retained their positions for more than two decades.
(ST)