Sudan, October 01: Around 20 Sudanese political parties threatened on Wednesday to boycott next year’s elections, the first in more than two decades, unless President Omar al-Beshir implements reforms.
Meeting in the capital of semi-autonomous South Sudan, they called for “amendment of all laws related to freedoms and democratic transformation” to bring them into line with the interim constitution in Africa’s largest nation.
In 2005, after 21 years of north-south civil war, the south’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and Beshir’s National Congress Party (NCP) signed a Comprehensive Peace Agreement including the interim constitution.
In the “Juba declaration for dialogue and national consensus,” agreed after five days of talks, the leaders said they will only take part in planned presidential, parliamentary and regional elections if the relevant laws are amended by the end of November.
The elections, scheduled for April, would be the first since 1986.
“It is a victory. For the first time in our history we have a national consensus,” Pagan Amum, SPLM secretary general, said.
Politicians who participated in the conference included Sadek al-Mahdi, head of the Umma party, and Islamist opposition figure Hassan al-Turabi.
Beshir boycotted the conference.
—Agencies