September 9, 2009 (WASHINGTON) — A conference of Sudanese opposition parties due to start in South Sudan capital of Juba this week has been delayed, Sudan Tribune has learned.
The participants included the Umma National Party, Umma Reform and Renewal Party, Sudanese Communist Party, Popular Congress Part (PCP), and other smaller parties.
The conference was called for by the ex-Southern rebel group Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) last May amid growing frustration with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) among opposition parties.
The NCP has declined to take part in the conference saying it was not consulted on the working papers to be discussed and also expressed suspicion over the motives behind the convention suggesting it is a coalition in the making against it.
However, a meeting took place between the Vice President of South Sudan Government Riek Machar and leading figures of the NCP late Tuesday night and discussed the Juba conference.
Sources told Sudan Tribune that the NCP asked the SPLM to reschedule the conference until after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan so that it can join it at a later date after it has prepared for it.
The SPLM agreed and the Juba conference is now set to start on September 26.
It is not clear why the NCP had a change of heart regarding participating in the conference. NCP officials and pro-government media has launched a bitter attack on the SPLM for hosting it.
Today a number of political figures were quoted by Sudan official news agency (SUNA) as saying that the Juba conference as “exclusionist” and “partial”.
The secretary general of the council for national unity parties Mudawi Al-Turabi said that they intend to formally address SPLM leader Salva Kiir “on the violations that targeted the parties that are in the government coalition with him [SPLM]”.
Al-Turabi said that the alliance of the SPLM with opposition parties “will unravel the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and democratic transformation”.
In another development the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which is Sudan’s second largest Northern party has announced that it will send a representative to the Juba conference.
The DUP had announced last week that they will not take part in the conference for “partisan reasons”.
(ST)
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