Sudan’s PCP seeks to achieve an all-party political charter

October 12, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) led by Hassan al-Turabi said it will launch a new initiative to combine views presented in initiatives of all political forces in order to reach a unified political charter.

The PCP political secretary, Kamal Omer Abdel-Salam told Sudan Tribune that the political scene is bustling with a large number of initiatives which seek to address the Sudanese crisis, saying his party embarked on contacting all political forces according to a specific action plan to merge these various initiatives.

Last Wednesday, the rebel umbrella organisation of the Sudan Revolutionary Forces (SRF) said it seeks to form a broad strategic alliance including the opposition alliance of the National Consensus Forces (NCF), the National Umma Party (NUP), and other forces .

Abdel-Salam added their initiative does not only target the NUP led by al-Sadiq al-Mahdi and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) led by Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani but all Sudanese political forces, noting they contacted both al-Mirghani and al-Mahdi.

He pointed that all political forces have proposed political initiatives to resolve the Sudanese crisis such as al-Mirghani’s Initiative for National Consensus and other initiatives, stressing the PCP seeks to identify commonalities among these initiatives in order to develop a charter which includes all parties and alliances.

The opposition forces are divided between those who accepted to participate in the national dialogue and others refusing to join the process before a number of confidence building measures.

However recently a new rift appeared within the second group as the NUP is accused of seeking to form a third block based on the Paris Declaration in a bid to gather all center and right political parties.

The NUP, which had been participating in the dialogue process, signed an agreement in August with the rebel alliance Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) on the need to unify the opposition groups before to hold a genuine dialogue aiming to end war and restore democracy in Sudan.

On Saturday, the party of Sadiq al-Mahdi, which suspended its membership in the NCF, urged opposition forces to review and evaluate political alliances, demanding them to establish a new political coalition on the basis of Paris Declaration.

Earlier this month, the NCF chairman, Farouk Abu Issa, accused the NUP of seeking to form a new alliance under the name of the “National Front for Change”, describing the move as an attempt to weaken the major opposition alliance, the NCF.

SPLM-N secretary-general Yasir Arman last week reiterated the SRF keenness to unify the opposition ranks and reiterated their commitment to the specific relation they have with the NCF forces.

(ST)