Sudan NCP rift: reformists say Shura decision is biased
November 17, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party’s (NCP) reformists group has denounced the decision of the NCP’s Shura (consultative) council against them saying it was biased.
The commission of inquiry, headed by the national assembly speaker Ibrahim Al-Tahir, recommended the dismissal of Al-Attabani along with two other members and suspending nine others. The latter declared his intention to leave the party and form a new one that would “bring new hope to Sudan”.
But the reformist group sent a letter to the members of the Shura council questioning the legitimacy of Al-Tahir’s commission of inquiry and refuting the decision against them.
The letter pointed out that the commission criminalised and penalised the reformists without giving them a fair opportunity to defend themselves and clarify the facts.
They denied that the commission was formed by the leadership office as it claimed, saying that the chairman of the NCP, Omer Al-Bashir, doesn’t have the legal right to form a provisional commission of inquiry.
The reformists further denounced the selectivity of the commission in punishing the reformist members, saying that the commission suspended only 9 members of the reformist group whose names appeared in the memo while the original signatories were 31 members.
“This proves the selectivity in the commission’ decisions which are not based on laws or any standards of justice but personal motives”, they added.
The reformist group, on the other hand, pointed out that the commission’s formation letter did not include an accusation to the reformists of forming a parallel political party, saying that the merits of the suspension decision were based on the assumption that a parallel political party has been established by the reformists.
The reformists, who denied being an organised group as it was said in the decision, went on to accuse the commission of considering the party’s interests as more important than achieving justice, saying that it took its decision without evidence and verification.
The letter also said that the head of the commission acknowledged that their decision was based on information obtained from spying and security sources, saying that this behaviour contradicts the attitude of the believers and the holy Quran, they said.
RESOLVED TO ESTABLISH A NEW PARTY
Attabai in a reaction published on his Facebook page said the decision of the Shura confirmed their point of view that it is not possible to reform the National Congress Party.
He called on “open minded and conscientious people to engage in the reform process through the new configuration” they plan to establish.
“We assure the Sudanese people that our decision to form a party far from the National Congress Party is a decision-in-principle and we are working to achieve it” he further emphasised.
Observers believe that the rift between the two sides has reached a point of no return. However it is not clear if the party they plan to establish would work with the opposition Popular Congress Party created after a first dissidence from the NCP led by Hassan Al-Turabi in 1999.
At the time Attabani was among the ten signatories of a memo directed against Turabi that led to the dissidence.
(ST)