Bashir to declare Sudan’s new government lineup in late August
* Article
* Comments (2)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
*
*
*
*
August 16, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s president Omer Al-Bashir will
announce a new government makeup that will see the country’s cabinet
being halved and security apparatus bifurcated, according to officials
from his ruling party.
JPEG - 27.3 kb
Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir speaks after the signing
ceremony of a peace accord with Darfur rebel group Liberation Movement
and Justice (LJM) in Doha July 14, 2011 (REUTERS PICTURES)
Al-Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday announced that
the new government will be formed in late August before Eid Al-Fitr
holiday which follows the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
This will be Sudan’s first government formation since the country
split in two last July when South Sudan declared independence in line
with the outcome of the region’s referendum vote on independence held
at the start of this year.
In an address to the parliament last month, President Al-Bashir
outlined the features of his “second republic,” promising a trenchant
policy of reforms and balanced development in a bid to remedy the
country’s chronic concentration of wealth and power in the center.
Sudan also said it intends to cut government spending and perks as the
country sails into economic uncertainties following the loss of 75
percent of the country’s oil production with the south’s secession.
Al-Haj Adam Yousif, the NCP’s political secretary, revealed that the
33 members of the current cabinet would be reduced to 15 ministers and
the National Security and Intelligence Services (NISS) would be split
to two branches, one for domestic security and one for external
security.
Spending on Sudan’s notorious and fairly bloated security watchdog,
NISS, costs the country a great chunk of its budget. Sudan’s
expenditure on defense is estimated to have risen from US$2.469bn in
2009 by 36.18% in 2010, according to a report produced by Research And
Market in 2010.
Yousif said in statements to the independent Arabic daily Al-Ahdath
newspaper that his party had formed a committee to craft
recommendations for state restructuring and formation of the new
government. He further said that the committee had finalised its
recommendations and would refer them to Al-Bashir in the upcoming
days.
According to Sudan Tribune’s sources, the committee’s report has
recommended mergers between some ministries and elimination of others.
Sudan’s current cabinet is composed of 35 portfolios occupied
exclusively by NCP members and associates. Opposition parties
criticise what they deem as an excessively big government and
extravagant expenditure on state officials’ perks.
Furthermore, the NCP’s committee report recommended the creation of
three vice-presidents’ positions to be occupied by two individuals
from the western region of Darfur and eastern Sudan respectively
beside the current vice-president Ali Osman Mohamed Taha.
The NCP official also said that the president was seeking to form a
government that enjoys consensus among the people and political
forces.
Al-Bashir’s party has been engaged in talks with the mainstream
opposition National Umma Party (NUP), led by former prime minister
Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Mohamed
Osman Al-Mirghani in order to reach a power-sharing deal.
But the talks have so far failed to produce results amid reports of
disagreements and refusal by the NCP to offer meaningful concessions.
Other opposition groups, most notably the Popular Congress Party (PCP)
of Islamist leader Hassan Al-Turabi, remain publicly committed to
regime-changing agendas and voice opposition to dialogue with the NCP
which they accuse of a long list of failures, including the country’s
breakup and worsening economic conditions.
Yousif said that incorporation of the DUP and NUP into the government
was still under discussion. However, he stressed that his party would
not forgo its demand for slashing the cabinet and would not allot any
portfolios to the two opposition parties in the new government even if
they end up participating in the government.
He further admitted the existence of a gap between the stances of his
party and those of the opposition but he added that the dialogue was
still ongoing.
Meanwhile, an NCP official told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper
said that Al-Bashir does not mind the participation of opposition
parties in the cabinet with 30 percent of its seats as well as the
establishment of an advisory council that includes representatives of
the opposition.
However, the anonymous official said there would be legal difficulties
in incorporating opposition parties in the parliament given that the
members of the NCP-dominated parliament were elected in the disputed
national elections of April 2010.
The NCP official further revealed that his party was facing a great
deal of pressure due to the fact that many current ministers would
lose their positions in the new cabinet makeup.
There are 77 federal and state ministers in the current government,
with a dearth of technocrats and the majority being members of the NCP
or parties aligned with the NCP.
(ST)
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD
info" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
