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Sudan’s military council and opposition umbrella to meet Monday

Freedom and Change forces and military council meet at the Sudanese presidency in Khartoum on 27 April 2019 (ST photo)
Freedom and Change forces and military council meet at the Sudanese presidency in Khartoum on 27 April 2019 (ST photo)

May 11, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – The Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the forces of the “Declaration of Freedom and Change” agreed to resume negotiations next Monday.

Negotiations on the transfer of power to civilians were suspended late last month after three sessions that ended with a number of reservations the TMC expressed about the opposition proposals for the handover. Following what, the freedom and change forces accused the Council of lack of seriousness to transfer power to a civilian entity.

A spokesman for the opposition coalition Khalid Omer told Sudan Tribune on Saturday night that a joint secretariat from the two sides agreed to resume meetings on Monday, instead of Sunday for further preparations.

Omer stressed that the opposition forces will be represented with the same negotiating team unchanged. Also, he strongly denied the existence of differences between the opposition groups on issues under discussion with the military junta.

The military council used to accuse the opposition of coming up with different views according to the negotiating delegation.

In a related development, the parties “Freedom and Change” forces postponed a press conference planned to be held on Saturday to explain its vision and position on negotiations with the military junta.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the coalition said they identified the points of disagreement with the Council and said resolved to settle it within 72 hours, as a time limit for the talks.

The opposition groups held a series of meetings during the recent days to prepare a written response to the military council on its response to their draft constitutional document.

Also, they reached a joint position on their disagreement with the TMC over the composition of the sovereign council and its powers in addition to the duration of the transitional period.

On the formation of a leadership body of the opposition coalition, Khalid Omar said that arrangements are underway to develop a general structure as the Declaration of Freedom and Change has been endorsed by 50 groups.

“To unify all, we need to put in place a general structure. A committee has been tasked with drafting this structure to contain all the factions to be active and the committee is working on it now.”

The spokesman denied rumours about reservations raised by the Sudanese Professionals Association on the new structure.

He pointed out that the professionals have their own conception on the subject being put forward and will be deliberated with all the proposals before to reach the acceptable formula.

The professionals say they a group defending the social interests of the workers and keen to keep their independence vis-à-vis any government or political forces.

(ST)

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