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April 15, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) today accused opposition parties of planning a revolution against the upcoming government seeking to overthrow it.
"[The opposition groups] are not going to recognize the outcome of the elections and they are going to go to the streets and try to change the regime ... through conflict, riots," Sudan presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie told reporters at a briefing.
"They are giving examples of what happened in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Nigeria as if they want to convince public opinion that this is possible, but they will discover that it was merely a mirage" he added.
Several heavyweight Northern opposition parties such as the Umma Party and Sudan Communist Party (SCP) boycotted the elections claiming it cannot be held in a fair and free manner. They accused the NCP of using fraud and utilizing state resources to win the polls.
The Northern sector of the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) has also boycotted all elections in the North for the same reason dealing severe credibility blow to the country’s first multi-party general elections since 1986.
The NCP leader and incumbent president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir is hoping to enforce his legitimacy to face the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against him.
Nafie quoted from what he said were opposition statements promising to mount protests, reject the newly elected administration and replace it with a "government of national unity".
"If you have any explanation for this other than chaos and trying to change the regime through popular revolution ... I don’t have any other explanation," he said.
The SPLM deputy presidential candidate Yasir Arman ,who withdrew days before the elections, has vowed to stage peaceful demonstrations in several states to protest the conduct of the elections.
The UMMA Reform and Renewal Party (URRP) leader Mubarak al-Fadil dismissed the plot accusation, saying he had assured a government delegation that he had no plans to launch protests and called for a national dialogue to address the crisis in the country.
Nafie’s remarks mark a more aggressive tone than that of his peer Ghazi Salah Al-Deen Al-Attabani who said yesterday that the NCP would like opposition to join the government ranks even those who boycotted.
"We are facing important decisions like self-determination in the south and would like to garner as much support and as much consensus as we can" Al-Attabani added.
But his offer was met by a cool reception from most opposition parties though the Umma Party did not rule it out.
Nafie qualified Al-Attabani’s remarks saying these parties must recognize the results for them to take advantage of this offer saying otherwise it would be "illogical".
Newspaper reports in Khartoum suggested that Bashir intends to replace figures which has been part of the government for 20+ years including Vice president Ali Osman Taha who may be removed in favor of a Darfuri figure such as Al-Tigani Al-Sissi who was recently appointed as head of the rebel Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM).
(ST)
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