DUP figures mount fresh challenge to al-Mirghani & son
October 24, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – A group of top figures from Sudan’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), who described themselves as the legitimate leaders, held a consultative meeting today to discuss the internal situation and drafted a number of recommendations that will be submitted to the party’s chairman Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani.
The infighting led to a decision this year by DUP de-facto leader and the chairman’s son Mohamed al-Hassan al-Mirghani to fire dissidents who challenged his move to run in the country’s general elections earlier this year.
To complicate the situation further, his father later overruled the dismissal and reinstated the dissidents.
In Ombadda suburb of Omdurman, a meeting was held that brought together DUP leadership figures, politburo members, members of the Preparatory Committee, political supervisors, state committees, and leaders of various DUP sectors including women, youth and students.
A statement issued after the meeting, included an objection to the participation of the party in the last elections without consulting DUP organs and despite the absence of fairness, freedom and transparency in the polls.
“We declare that the DUP did not participate in these elections and does not recognize the results and the subsequent outcome,” the statements reads.
They repeated the same position on participation in the executive and legislative branches.
“It must be stressed that participants in the legislative and executive branches of the government, do not represent the DUP but themselves”.
It is noteworthy that Mohamed al-Hassan al-Mirghani himself was sworn several months ago as president Omer Hassan al-Bashir’s assistant.
With regard to national dialogue, the statement recalled that the party was the first to call for a comprehensive national reconciliation process through a constitutional conference to review all the country’s problems since al-Mirghani peace initiative in 1988 with late SPLM leader John Garang.
It pointed out that al-Mirghani rolled out a new initiative in 2014 which represents the only official document governing DUP position on the dialogue process.
“Therefore the party has responded in principle to entering into a dialogue, according to a national and comprehensive vision for Sudanese crisis but the course of dialogue and its arrangements ran contrary to that”.
It stressed that continuing the national dialogue, which officially started this month, along the same path “can only lead to aggravation of the crisis in Sudan, which forces us to emphasize that the DUP has nothing to do with this ongoing dialogue and did not participate in any of the stages of preparation”.
The meeting also underscored the importance of holding the long-delayed general convention.
(ST)
