Council rejects NISS request to ban Sudan opposition party
April 5, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s Political Parties Affairs Council (PPAC) rejected a request filled by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) to dissolve the opposition National Umma Party which signed several political agreements with rebel groups.
The security service pointed that these political agreements call for dismantling the one-party state and mobilising all forces “to change the existing constitutional order in the country that carries a military aspect”.
It must be proven that the Umma Party had effectively violated the constitution as it claimed by the NISS. Also, this violation should be verified through a court sentence issued by a competent judicial authority, said the PPAC’s decision seen by Sudan Tribune.
In the Paris Declaration of 8 August 2014, the rebel groups accepted for the first time to sit on the negotiating table together with the government and opposition forces to discuss a political solution for the root causes of the conflicts in Darfur, Nuba Montains and Bule Nile state and to discuss constitutional refomrs.
In the Sudan Call inked signed in Addis Ababa on 3 December 2014, the opposition alliance National Consensus Forces (NCF) and civil society groups joined the opposition platform for a negotiated comprehensive solution in line with the African Union roadmap and the national dialogue process.
The Sudanese officials including president Omer Hassan al-Bashir say opposed to any meeting or agreement with the armed groups pointing it demoralise the government troops fighting the rebels in Darfur and the Two Areas.
However, observers say the government’s opposition to such rapprochement can be explained by the Khartoum fears that these agreements would develop strong alliance defeating its options in any future round table to negotiate a political solution.
It is not clear if the NISS will seek to contest the PPAC’s decision before the constitutional court.
Some commentators in Khartoum have also questioned how the PPAC, which is administratively attached to the Sudanese presidency, can issue such a decision without the green light from president Bashir.
The Sudanese opposition leaders who signed the Sudan Call are in jail and are in trial since December 2014 while the NUP leader is residing in Cairo as the government said he would be arrested if he returns to Khartoum.
(ST)