Sudan’s Umma Party freezes FFC membership, proposes ‘new social contract’

On Wednesday, the Sudanese Umma Party under the leadership of El Sadig El Mahdi suspended its activities on all levels for the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC). It called for “a new social contract” to rebuild the country.

In a statement yesterday, read out by a representative of the National Umma Party (NUP) at the FFC Central Council, the party called for “a new social contract and the reformation of the structures of the transitional period in order to achieve the tasks stipulated in the Constitutional Charter”.

The party proposed a founding conference for “the revolutionary forces who signed the Declaration of Freedom and Change [in January 2019], and belong or not belong to the current structures of the FFC.

“If our allies in the FFC respond to this request within two weeks, we will meet at the founding conference to agree on the desired radical reform,” the NUP said.

“Failure to respond to this demand amid the congesting conditions in the country requires us to work towards achieving the desired development and reform with all national parties, including the FFC, the executive government, and the Sovereign Council, both civilian and military.”

The NUP says it has a clear vision about “reforming the situation beyond the proposed matrix” through a “new social contract”. It has sent the details of its proposal to all members of the FFC.

Earlier this week, the party demanded the FFC to withdraw its proposal for the nominations of new civilian governors, as the nominations “do not take into account the views of stakeholders in the states, but rather represent the opinion of the political elites in Khartoum”.

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