NCP April elections nothing but grabbing non-existent legitimacy
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
This article comes against the backdrop of the impending doom and gloom, which awaits the people of Sudan from the elections the National Congress Party (NCP) regime insists to conduct and now have become around the corner. Moreover, the article also coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of the popular uprising in Sudan on April 6, 1985 that ousted the then military regime.
Bashir’s Elections that scheduled to take place in mid-April 2015 are for legitimizing the illegitimate. The regime wanted carrying on milking the cow without feeding it! Moreover, many political observers believed that the real reason the ruling NCP is so keen to go ahead with the elections, particularly the presidential elections, is for Omer al- Bashir protecting himself from the ICC shackles by securing another 5 years in office.
The NCP regime is resting assured since winning the polls is for granted and just a matter of fait accompli, whether there is war, rain or flood! These are elections for shielding Omer al-Bashir from the inferno mousetrap of the scary ICC. Elections of al-Bashir take place under the sound of the roaring of the bombing of Antonov aircraft and while the ballot boxes sitting on the bodies of the victims of Sudan. The main objective of the April elections is to protect Omar al-Bashir from the grip of the (ICC).
Omer al-Bashir sees the (ICC) as the most terrible Bugaboo and as scary as to cause him chills and shudders. The (ICC) will tell the tales of al-Bashir’s more than 580000 genocidal murders, those he has sent into displacement, exile and to the Diaspora more than 12 million within and outside the Sudan. Al-Bashir has the duty of facing the transitional Justice for the retribution along with his accomplice perpetrators. They committed crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in Darfur. Justice for the rights of the victims and survivors who are longing for revenge from the hypocrites who wrapped themselves with religion and committed the most heinous crimes in the name of Islam is pending. Al-Bashir and his close aides killed in cold blood innocent Muslims in the region. History tells that the ancestors of the victims and the survivors were renowned for their benevolence for covering the Kaaba in Mecca with the traditional clothing every year.
The regime of the (NCP) refused to sit with the Sudan Call opposition components at the preliminary meeting in Addis Ababa for the national dialogue and the meeting scheduled for 29 -30 of March failed.
Thus, Bashir’s April Elections are for Legitimizing the illegitimate and Milking the Cow without feeding it.
As for the so-called amendment of the 2005 Constitution by the National Assembly, parliament, which is monopolised by the (NCP) regime, has no legal legitimacy. Furthermore, any new clauses that have been added to the original text of the Constitution have no credibility and baseless and null and void and shall not be taken legally binding and does not count! Bashir’s Candidacy is void and null.
If we accept the controversial argument that the elections scheduled for April 2015 can run on time, the Constitution of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005, which led to the secession of south of Sudan does not allow for Omar al-Bashir to assume more than twice in the presidency.
Omer al-Bashir had two terms of presidency and the 2005 Constitution based on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) does not allow him to run for a third term.
In spite of the difficulty of unseating of a dictator who has reigned for more than a quarter of a century, taking the situation in Sudan as an example, the task of resolving his legacy is equally a challenging task for the victors to tackle! Nevertheless, this will not deter the disenfranchised marginalised people in the country to proceed with the plans for ousting the National Congress Party regime and replacing by an alternative consensus Democratic system characterised of rule of law, good governance and excluding none of the citizens on race, gender, faith or any other affiliation.
Talking according to logic about the legality of a decision or lack of legality under the regime of the National Congress Party (NCP) is like the running of the thirsty behind the mirage thinking it water or plowing in the sea; so to speak. The decisions taken by the (NCP) regime remain as clear travesty of justice.
At the debate organised by the Associate Parliamentary Group (APG) in the Palace of Westminster on Sudan and South Sudan on 11th March 2015, people said that the “outcome of the presidential election is hardly in doubt. The 14 other candidates standing against the Génocidaire Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir are people that nobody has ever heard of or who received only a tiny share of the votes in the last elections in 2010. Baroness Caroline Cox of Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART and former EU Special Representative for Sudan, September 2010 until October 2013 Dame Rosalind Marsden, led the debate.
The NCP regime resorts to baseless justifications for prevarication, maneuvering, gaining time and thwarting rivals.
It is now twenty-six lean years of the irksome running saga of the tyranny and the elusiveness of Omar al-Bashir who is renowned for reneging and canceling the peace agreements signed with the parties. The people of t Sudan do not accept any further absurd so-called ‘Wathba Dialogues in Addis Ababa. Toppling and removing the NCP regime and hold accountable the genocidal criminal Omer al-Bashir and his entourage of criminals and isolating them along with establishing the long awaited free democratic citizenship state of Sudan where every Sudanese irrespective of ethnicity, gender, age, colour, faith, political or regional affiliation, have the equal rights and duties of citizenship. Sustainable peace, stopping the civil wars of attrition waged by the NIF/NCP entities using the proxy militias and mercenaries are a priority.
The Sudanese people in the marginalised territories questioning as to what is the rationale for the Sudanese Opposition groups both political and armed for attending the African Union sponsored meeting with the Sudanese regime in Addis Ababa between 29-30 March 2015. The Khartoum government has asked the mediation of the African Union (AU) to postpone the preparatory meeting between the government and the opposition group in Addis Ababa on 29 and 30 March 2015. The justification of the (NCP) regime for that the (AULIP) did not send invitation early enough for so-called mechanism 7/7 for national dialogue.
The Marathon rounds of negotiations and going to and fro into the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and interviews with the former South African President and the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) Chairman, Thabo Mbeki, who became part of the Sudanese problem should be considered a thing from the past and put an end to it. It remains pointless to attend AU meeting while the National Consensus Force (NCF) leader Ustaz Farouq Abu Issa is still in arbitrary detention along with Dr. Amin Mekki Medani and Mr. Farah al-Agar since their return to Khartoum after signing the Sudan Call Document in Addis Ababa.
Similarly, the international community has failed in providing a real help to the people of Sudan. All that the international community have been doing through the inept African Union (AU) is keeping the political situation in Sudan remaining the same in spite of the steady and continuing deterioration of the lives of citizens from bad to worse because of repression and hardship of living imposed by the (NCP) regime upon the people of Sudan.
The Components of the Sudanese people raise their voices loud, out, and saying: torment, displacement, genocide, and the hardships of living just do not want anything but the ouster of al-Bashir and his clique. The slogan of the disenfranchised people of Sudan now is: (leave… Leave Génocidaire Omer al- Bashir) to The Hague, where the (ICC) is housed to have the International Justice that you have evaded and remained fugitive for so long Then to go ahead with the establishment of a democratic alternative system on the ruins of the hateful (NCP) government.
The people of Sudan in Darfur felt so flabbergasted and disappointed that so much injustice could exist in this day and age where people in the developed nations enjoy democracy and equal citizenship rights.
The (NCP) pythons, snakes, adders and bloodthirsty assassins backed by hireling traitors do not forget the use of poisons, venoms for hate and rancors based crimes against innocent Sudanese people to continue on the helm of Sudan. Therefore, it is the duty of humanity to assume its responsibilities today before tomorrow.
Thus, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir the fugitive from international justice insists to govern Sudan for the third term, against the wheel of history, against the interests and wishes of its citizens and against the rights of the people of the country on the skulls of the victims in Darfur, Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile by his arbitrary regime. Nevertheless, Omar al-Bashir remains a fugitive on the run like the one that trying to recourse from the frying pan into the fire, as the popular adage goes!
One concludes by a quote from Elliott Abrams, an American diplomat “Elections matter, but how much they matter depends entirely on how free, open and fair they are”.
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/