Sudanese cabinet to hold its last meeting before Bashir’s oath ceremony

May 24, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese cabinet on Thursday will hold its final meeting on Thursday to mark the end of its term before president Omer Hassan al-Bashir’s swearing in ceremony in early June.

Sudan Tribune has learned that senior government figures received formal invitations to attend the meeting which was postponed from its original date of May 25th.

Bashir is expected to address the ministers and thank them for their efforts in the past period before taking a full photo of the cabinet.

In a related issue, it is expected that the Council of States and the National assembly would hold separate meetings in which its members will take the oath office and new speakers will be elected.

Some reports said that former parliament speaker Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir is the likely candidate to preside over the Council of States while former Vice president Ali Osman Taha could become the speaker of the parliament.

The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) will hold a meeting on Wednesday with the issue of the new cabinet topping the agenda.

However, it is not clear if the decisions will be made at that meeting.

Bashir could issue a decree delegating the Undersecretaries to run their ministries until a new cabinet is sworn in.

Besides the NCP, the cabinet will include other pro-government parties such as the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Darfuri Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM).

Bashir and the NCP secured a landslide victory in the elections held last April that were shunned by most major opposition parties and discredited by the United States and European Union (EU).

It was also marked by very low turnout that was attributed to apathy of Sudanese voters.

(ST)