AU mediator concerned about women’s representation in new Sudan govt.

African Union mediator in Sudan, Mohamed Lebatt, has expressed his concern that women may not be adequately represented in the government that will be formed after the signing ceremony of the Constitutional Declaration on August 17.

Lebatt told the French Channel 24 on Wednesday that the constitutional document set a 40 per cent quota for women participation in the Parliament.

He predicted that the luck of women in the transitional cabinet of technocrats would be better than that of the Sovereign Council.

Asked about impunity for members of the ruling military junta, the mediator answered that no member of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) demanded impunity during the recent negotiations on the text of the Constitutional Declaration.

Concerning the complaints of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, a coalition of three armed movements) that the Addis Ababa accord agreed on by the FFC and SRF on July 26 concerning the peace processes in the country, Lebatt said in an interview with the BBC on Friday that the FFC considered the members who went to Addis Ababa for talks with the armed movements “not authorised”. Therefore, the agreement is not binding to them.

The mediation consideres the SRF part of the FFC coalition. Lebatt explained that the Political Charter, signed by the TMC and FFC on July 17, and the Constitutional Declaration text agreed upon on August 3, contain main clauses on the peace processes “in a clear, comprehensive manner”.

On August 18, a day after the official signing of the Constitutional Declaration, the names of the 11 members of the Sovereign Council that will govern Sudan during an interim period of three years in the run-up to elections, will be announced.

August 20 will see the announcement of Sudan’s new Prime Minister. The composition of the Cabinet is planned to be finalised on August 28.

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