Sudan’s opposition party denies participation in NCP-led dialogue
July 5, 2015 (KHARTOUM) -The opposition Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP) led by Ibrahim al-Sheikh has dismissed press reports claiming that it decided to join the national dialogue.
However, the SCoP , in a statement issued on Sunday, denied Jaber’s statement, describing the government-led dialogue as “infamous”.
The opposition party described the news as “false and baseless” and blamed Al-Siyasi for not verifying the credibility of Aboud’s statement according to the fundamentals of journalism work and ethics of the profession.
It should be mentioned that the head of the political sector at the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), Mustafa Osman Ismail, on Saturday disclosed that they held meetings with some unnamed opposition parties refusing to engage in the national dialogue in order to convince them to join the process.
The SCoP accused the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) and a few unnamed political forces of launching an organized media campaign to question its political stances, saying they seek to divide the forces of resistance and to distort the image of those most committed to the national democratic stances.
“This campaign wouldn’t achieve its objectives and the SCoP will confront it with further determination in order to change the troubled reality caused by the regime,” it added.
The SCoP considered that the dialogue has been buried since the opposition alliance the National Consensus Forces (NCF) decided to boycott it, pointing that the regime is incapable of meeting requirements of the dialogue and the comprehensive political solution.
“Dialogue requirements are original rights that has been incorporated in the [2005] constitution but the tyrannical regime doesn’t respect the constitution and doesn’t care about the interests of the country and the people and thus it is not qualified to lead a national dialogue to resolve the nation’s problems”, the statement reads.
The opposition party said the regime’s call for the national dialogue “was meant to throw dust in the eyes,” emphasising that it has not and will never be part of the futile government dialogue.
“We would continue to say there is no option but the popular uprising to throw the regime in the dustbin of history, and it [the popular uprising] is much closer than ever,” the statement said.
The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir launched the national dialogue initiative a year and a half ago in which he urged opposition parties and rebels alike to join the dialogue table to discuss all the pressing issues.
But the initiative faced serious setbacks after the government refusal to create suitable atmosphere in the country.
The National Umma Party (NUP) of Sadiq al-Mahdi and the Reform Now Movement (RNM) of Ghazi Salah al-Din Attabani suspended their participation in the dialogue process, claiming that the ruling party is not serious in its initiative for peace and democratic reforms.
In February 2015, the NCF, the alliance of rebel groups, Sudanese Revolutionary Forces (SRF) and the NUP accepted to negotiate with the government on pre-dialogue measures before to join the internal process but the ruling party declined to meet them before the elections.
(ST)