Military council, opposition to resume talks on Sudan’s constitutional declaration

July 28, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – Talks on the constitutional declaration will resume on Tuesday to reach an agreement on the powers of the three institutions of the transitional authority.

The ruling Military Transitional Council and the opposition coalition Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) initialized a political agreement that defined the organs of the transitional period and urgent issues to be resolved during the three-year transition including peace, justice and economic reforms.

However, the FFC asked to postpone the discussions on the constitutional text that will govern the transitional period to hold consultation meetings with their allied armed groups in Addis Ababa.

The regional mediation invited the negotiating delegations from the two sides to meet for a final round of talks on the constitutional decree and other related issues on Tuesday said a statement released on Sunday.

The statement mentioned that the technical team will meet on Monday and urged the parties to speed up the talks to meet the aspiration of Sudanese for change.

During the past days, the joint technical team discussed the sticking points such as the powers of the Sovereign Council, the immunity of its members and the members and powers of some sensitive committees such as the national security committee.

Sources say they have reached a compromise on many points particularly on the two issues of Sovereign Council as more articles have been agreed to determine the nature of the political immunity its duration and how to remove it if needed.

Satea al-Hajj, a leading member of the opposition alliance told “Sudan Tribune” that consultations between the FFC groups are continuing to reach a unified vision on the document of the constitutional declaration.

He added that the opposition received several views and observations on the document from academic and experts in preparation for engaging in direct negotiations with the military council next Tuesday.

He pointed out that the joint technical committee on Monday will deliberate on the draft constitutional declaration and agree on a final draft ahead on the resumption of direct negotiations.

The opposition coalition forces published the draft constitutional document four days ago and called to discuss in the social media and public meetings. Also, they asked jurists to give their opinion on it in order to consider the views of the largest number of Sudanese people.

(ST)