Sudan’s government parties back Bashir’s re-election in 2020
April 9, 2018 (KHARTOUM) – The political parties of the National Consensus Government (NCG) have agreed to back the re-election of President Omer al-Bashir in 2020.
The announcement was made by Sudanese Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman following a meeting of an NCG delegation with the deputy chairman of the National Congress Party (NCP) Faisal Hassan Ibrahim on Monday.
“The coalition government’s parties agreed that the implementation of the outputs of the national dialogue ‘process) should be achieved in the presence of the main guarantor of the dialogue, which is the President of the Republic,” said Osman. Monday.
“So they agreed to re-nominate him for a new term in the next elections,” added the information minister was also the spokesperson of the dialogue process which concluded its work in October 2016.
In addition to the ruling National Congress Party, the National Consensus Government includes all the forces that took part in the political process.
Osman further said the political forces, participating in the government, call on President al-Bashir to release all political detainees in order to create a suitable atmosphere for the formation of the Supreme Constitutional Committee tasked with the drafting of the permanent constitution.
Al-Bashir several times said that he would step down by the end of his current term in 2020. Even in November, 2017 he went to declare his support for the candidacy of the governor of Gezira state Mohamed Tahir Ayala.
But observers more and more are inclined to believe that al-Bashir who is indicted by the International Criminal Court would run for a new term despite what he says.
For his part, Ibrahim who is also a presidential aide welcomed the call of the allied forces to release political detainees, as the ruling party didn’t yet take an official position on al-Bashir probable candidature.
The security forces arrested opposition leaders after a series of protests against the austerity measures including the increase of bread price announced at the beginning of January 2018.
(ST)