Two Sudanese ruling party MPs defect to RNP

May 6, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Two members of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in the outgoing parliament have announced that they are joining the Reform Now Movement (RNM) led by former presidential adviser Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Attabani.

RNM was established as an offshoot from the NCP in late 2013 after a memorandum submitted by prominent NCP leaders protesting the killing of dozens of protesters in the September 2013 demonstrations against lifting fuel subsidies.

MP Mohammed Saleh al-Safi from al-Obayid constituency in North Kordofan and MP Ahmed Hassan Ibrahim from Nyala in South Darfur said they made their decision out of conviction and stressed that they feel no hostility towards the NCP.

RNM chief on his end noted that the pair were signatories to the 2013 memo sent to president Omer Hassan al-Bashir who is also the NCP chairman.

The two MP’s said they tried to reform from within the NCP inside the parliament but without success.

Osama Tawfig, one of the RNM founding figures, underscored the existence of many reformers within the NCP and expressed surprise at rumours fuelled by the ruling party against the movement. He attributed this to the expansion of reformist thinking within the NCP adding that the recent elections proved the unpopularity of the NCP.

“We have already told the Vice Chairman of the NCP Ibrahim Ghandour that they beheaded reformists only when they dismissed Ghazi but left the rest of the body and legs inside,” Tawfig said.

“In the parliament…..we had many reformists and now others have entered,” denying that the new parliamentarians belong to the RNM but pointed out that they have the same ideas.

RNM led an intensive campaign for the boycott of the recent elections along with other opposition parties.

Last April, RNM officials accused the NCP of working to divide them following differences which emerged between al-Attabani and his deputy Mohamed Bashir Suleiman.

30 RNM leading figures at the time have announced that they are splitting from the RNM to establish a new political party under the leadership of Suleiman.

(ST)