Nafie, Taha to remain members of NCP’s top body: official

December 17, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The former First Vice President Ali Osman Taha and ex-presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie will remain members of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) leadership council headed by Bashir.

Taha and Nafie lost their government posts in the shakeup which took place last week that saw the departure of several veteran figures such as the oil minister Awad al-Jaz.

The head of the NCP Organizational bureau Hamed Sideeg was quoted by Sudan news agency (SUNA) as saying that the two men have obligations in the NCP leadership council which requires them to stay on board.

Sideeg added that Ibrahim Ghandour who took over from Nafie as deputy NCP chairman for party affairs will remain the party’s external relations officer and the party’s spokesperson though he may delegate others for that role.

Some observers have said that the reshuffle made by president Omer Hassan al-Bashir aimed at excluding Islamists and empowering figures with military background.

Taha was replaced by former defense minister Lieutenant General Bakri Hassan Saleh who is a confidant of Bashir since the 1989 coup which brought him to power.

In a separate issue, Sideeg said that the NCP will not use the state’s money to fund them in the 2015 elections as opposition has alleged.

He stressed that the party relies on membership dues made by 8 million NCP supporters.

“If each [member] paid 10 pounds then that gives us 80 million pounds,” Sideeg said.

(ST)