Sudanese political forces reject al-Bashir nomination for 2020 election
August 13, 2018 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese political forces rejected the nomination of President Omer al-Bashir for a new term and said this step will undermine the ongoing efforts to end the political crisis in the country.
Last weekend the Shura (Consultative) Council of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) nominated al-Bashir as the party’s candidate for the presidential elections in 2020. The decision requires to amend the Sudanese constitution which limits a president to two terms but also the party statute.
The Reform Now Movement led by Ghazi Salah al-Din rejected the NCP’s decision to proceed with the constitutional amendment process, allowing the incumbent president to run for a new term.
In a statement released following a meeting of its political bureau on Monday, the RNM described the decision as “serious” adding it would lead to the collapse of the whole political process in the country.
The Movement declared its rejection of the step and expressed its determination to work with other political forces to abort it with all the “tools of political action”.
The statement also said that the decision puts the constitutional process in the grip of one political organization, and underestimates the partnership on which the national dialogue was built.
The RNM which is formed by splinter NCP faction several years ago, joint the national dialogue process in its final stage after boycotting it for a long time. Now it has some parliamentarians appointed within the framework of the national reconciliation government.
For his part, the head of the opposition National Umma Party has vowed to mobilize international and national condemnations against the decision by the NCP to re-nominate President al-Bashir for 2020 elections.
In a statement called “National Salvation Lettre ” on Monday, al-Mahdi said the decision by the NCP Consultative Council, to nominate al-Bashir for another term was “wrong and condemned.”
“The decision was without objective evaluation of al-Bashir’s performance in 30 years, and without taking into account the constitutional impediment, and without taking into account the harm Sudan is facing under the presidency of a president indicted by the International Criminal Court.”
Al-Mahdi concluded by proposing to al-Bashir to call on the “real” national forces to agree on a programme of national salvation, a law of national elections and the formation of a national electoral commission, as well as agreeing on a president to replace him.
The former prime minister who is also the leader of the opposition alliance Sudan Call is among several opposition groups that expressed their readiness to take part in the upcoming elections if al-Bashir is not running for president.
The rebel Justice and Equality Movement, which is fighting the government in Darfur, described al-Bashir nomination for 2020 election as the beginning of a “constitutional and legal massacre” aimed at amending the Constitution of 2005 in the framework of plans to legitimize keeping the president in power.
In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Monday, Deputy Secretary of Political Affairs Mohamed Zakaria Faraj Allah said al-Bashir and the National Congress Party were not valid to govern Sudan “after three decades of political and economic failure and the loss of the unity of the country.”
Faraj Allah said that the “misguided and flawed practice” has dispelled the last hope of reaching a negotiated solution to the national crisis and leaves no choice but to work hard to bring down the regime.
He also stressed that his movement does not recognize the existing constitution nor any electoral process that takes place “under the control of an illegitimate regime and the continuation of war and the rule of repressive laws.”
(ST)