Sudan’s RNM launches campaign for poll boycott as NCP warns of legal repercussions
January 14, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s Reform Now Movement (RNM) has initiated a campaign calling for the boycott of scheduled elections in April.
The campaign is urging Sudanese people not to participate in the elections, calling it a farce that would prolong tyranny.
The head of the RNM, Ghazi Salah al-Din Al-Attabani, has blasted the government and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) over the recent constitutional amendments, calling the outcome of the upcoming elections a foregone deal in favour of the ruling party.
This month, Sudanese lawmakers approved two controversial constitutional amendments introduced by the NCP despite opposition disapproval.
The first bill allows the president to appoint governors who will no longer be elected through universal suffrage. The second transforms the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) into regular force to legitimise the creation of its militia the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Sudanese opposition parties rejected the changes, saying it will turn the country into a police state.
Al-Attabani described these amendments as a “constitutional coup in broad daylight” and scoffed at MP’s and other politicians who cheered this step “to bestow a lost legitimacy” on it.
In an op-ed on Al-Jazeera TV website, al-Attabani recalled president Omer Hassan al-Bashir’s declaration that only parties which will compete in the elections will be offered seats in the government.
“This means that this government (or the next) is the NCP government. There is no need to wait for the results, which may theoretically be awarding the presidency to someone other than the incumbent to bring whomever he wants in his government,” al-Attabani wrote.
“The most dangerous constitutional coup was in the text relating to NISS. The complaining and wailing of all political forces, including many inside the NCP, is the overreach of the power and mandate of this agency which spread to all occupied and vacant spaces in the state,” he adds.
Al-Attabani, who was Bashir’s former adviser, recalled his position on the unconstitutionality of Bashir running again for presidency even in accordance with NCP rules.
He mocked the public campaign to support Bashir’s nomination saying it shows a financial backing not available to other potential contenders.
In recent years, Bashir has asserted that he will not run for a new term and went on to say that he spent enough time in power and that the country needs new faces.
However, he later backtracked, accepting the NCP nomination last October during the general convention, saying it is up to the party’s institutions to decide.
Meanwhile, NCP deputy chairman Ibrahim Ghandour warned the opposition against inciting people to boycott elections, calling it a violation of law.
“The opposition have the right to boycott the elections but inciting citizens to boycott the process is prohibited by law,” he said.
Ghandour said that his party does not care about recognition by the international community or the opposition of the election process.
“We obtain legitimacy from the people not the international community,” he said.
(ST)