Sudan’s ruling party in discussion with Darfur NLJP over government participation

June 23, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) is conducting discussions with the National Liberation and Justice Party (NLJP) of a former Darfurian rebel faction to reintegrate the federal government after suspending its participation .

On 17 June, the NLJP of Tijani al-Sissi decided to suspend its political partnership with the (NCP) and to withdraw from the government. The former rebel group accused the ruling party of not honouring a political agreement between the two parties.

NLJP’s spokesperson Ahmed Fadel said the two parties before the general elections of April 2015 signed an agreement providing to allocate a minister and two state ministers in the federal government to their party, besides several posts at the level of regional states. He added that the NCP gave them only one state minister and didn’t appoint four ministers at the regional level

NCP political secretary Mustafa Osman Ismail told the semi-official SMC that the deputy chairman of the ruling party Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid recently met with al-Sissi to discuss issues pertaining to the political partnership and NLJP participation in the government at the national and regional levels.

Further, the head of Darfur office at the NCP, al-Daw al-Faki expressed the party’s readiness to reach understanding on the political partnership with the former rebels.

The NLJP is one of two factions of the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) which signed the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) in July 2011. The other faction, Liberation and Justice Party (LJP) is chaired by Bahr Idriss Abu Gardah.

In a press conference held on 18 June, Fadel said that the suspension of political partnership does not affect the DDPD implementation

(ST)