Sudan’s Umma Party to take activities ‘underground’

The National Umma Party (NUP) will freeze the work of its internal bodies, and instead operate covertly, in response to the official request by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) to the Sudanese Political Parties Affairs Council to dissolve the party.

The decision to work “underground” was proposed by the NUP chairman, El Sadig El Mahdi, who is currently residing in Cairo. It was taken up by the politburo in a meeting that continued till the early hours of Sunday, Sudan Tribune reported today. 

On 12 January, the NUP received a letter from the Political Parties Affairs Council in which it requested the party to reply within one week to the complaint submitted by the NISS. The security had demanded from the Council to hold the NUP accountable for undermining the constitutional order, and instigating war against the state.

The security apparatus based its complaint on El Mahdi’s signing of the Paris Declaration (8 August 2014) together with the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, an alliance of the main rebel movements), and the Sudan Appeal (3 December 2014), with the SRF, the National Consensus Forces (NCF), and the Civil Society Initiative. In both political communiqués, the signatories call for a regime change, by dismantling the one-party state, and rebuild the country on democratic principles and equal citizenship.

The NUP is accused of violating the 2005 Sudanese Interim Constitution, and the Political Parties Act of 2007, as the security regards the two communiqués as a direct support of the military approach carried out by the rebel movements. “[S]upporting them [rebels] by the NUP is inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution and the law," reads the NISS file, seen by Sudan Tribune.

El Mahdi has not returned to his home country since he signed the Paris Declaration. Faroug Abu Eisa, head of the NCF, and Dr Amin Mekki Madani, chairman of the civil society coalition, were detained by NISS officers in Khartoum after their arrival from the Ethiopian capital. They have been charged with undermining the constitutional order, and instigating war against the state too.

NUP Deputy Chairman Fadlallah Burma said on Wednesday that the NUP lawyers are preparing legal and political arguments refuting the NISS demand.

Last week, Sara Nugdallah called through Dabanga upon the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) to “listen to the voice of reason and declare their readiness to enter a genuine dialogue with the Sudan Appeal signatories”. “We have to reach a consensus on a national constitutional conference, and the establishment of a transitional government that seeks to resolve all the crises of the country in a comprehensive manner,” she stated.

She called the issuance of an arrest warrant for El Mahdi “hollow and baseless”, saying that it  “is the NCP regime that dishonoured its oath to protect the country, abused the Constitution, and destroyed the state of Sudan”.