Sudan’s state governors to appointed after Hamdok’s return from U.S.

December 3, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – The appointment of civilian governors will be announced as soon as Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok returns from the United States, said Khalid Omer a leading member of Sudan’s Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) on Thursday.

Hamdok is expected to be in Khartoum on Sunday 8 December as he would leave Washington on Saturday.

The states are now governed by military governors, appointed by the military council in April, after al-Bashir’s ouster in April 2019.

In a statement to the “Sudan Tribune”, on Tuesday, Omer said that the Central Council of the ruling coalition now is holding consultations to nominate civilian rulers, after it received nominations from the branches of the coalition in the 18 states.

He favoured the completion of the consultations before the return of the Prime Minister and to give him the list of nominated governors upon his return.

The Sudan Tribune learned that the lists of governors proposed by the FFC in the states of West Kordofan, East Darfur, Kassala, have not yet been submitted to the Central Council.

The Sudanese Congress Party has nominated its former chairman, Ibrahim al-Sheikh, to be governor of Khartoum state, where his chances are high for the seat, but there are calls to appoint a woman in this position.

The FFC said Hamdok has discretionary power in the appointment process as they will hand him over the list of the 18 governors and up to the prime minister to review the proposed persons.

The Sudanese negotiating team says they agreed with the Sudanese Revolutionary Front to appoint the civilian governors now and to reshuffle the governors once a peace agreement is signed.

for their part, the SRF issued a statement called to not appoint the governors and to wait until a peace deal is signed. However, the FFC say they are pressed by the street to replace the military governors.

(ST)