Sudanese president outlines features of post-secession North
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June 2, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese President Omer Hassan al-Bashir
on Thursday ruled out the possibility of calling for early elections
stressing that the next one will be held in 2015 as planned.
JPEG - 34.1 kb
Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir meets former U.S. President
Jimmy Carter, who is in Sudan as a referendum observer, in Khartoum
January 8, 2011 (Reuters)
Addressing the Shura council of the ruling National Congress Party
(NCP), Bashir underscored the dominance of his party and described
opposition parties as "weak" which according to him meant that the NCP
faces no real competition.
However, the Sudanese president warned his party against feeling
"relaxed" as a result of the NCP having the upper hand in the
political arena.
"We will start in wrestling [among] ourselves [then] differences and
divisions will explode [within the NCP]" Bashir said.
The NCP achieved a landslide victory in the elections held in April
2010 which was boycotted by the major opposition parties and marred by
allegations of fraud. International observers who monitored the
elections said the exercise failed to meet full international
standards but nonetheless endorsed its overall credibility.
Bashir offered help to opposition parties so that they are in better
shape to compete next time. He further affirmed his intention to form
a broad based government with participation from other parties on the
basis of an agreed agenda "and not for the sake of participation".
"We will not hold early elections or otherwise and we shall endeavor
to assist the [opposition] parties to prepare themselves for the
upcoming elections because the democratic process is based on parties
that are active in the [political] arena," he said,
"If we want to be a solo party we will end up splitting into two or
three parties" Bashir cautioned.
The NCP chief said that the party must formulate a new vision based on
dialogue with all the components of the Sudanese society in order to
draft a new constitution for North Sudan following the official
independence of the South in July.
He revealed that a national committee will be formed which will
include all of the political, social, and vocational spectrum to draft
the document, send it to the parliament and once authorized put it to
a referendum vote.
POST-SECESSION ECONOMY
The Sudanese president sounded the warning bell over the North’s
economy once the oil-producing South goes away saying that further
austerity measures will have to be undertaken to weather the impact.
The government has already partially removed subsidies on sugar and
petroleum products and banned certain imports to preserve the foreign
exchange reserves.
Sudanese officials sought to downplay the economic effects of the
split saying that the North will manage to come up with other sources
of revenue to compensate for the loss in oil revenue.
"The separation of south Sudan will have an economic impact on us.
We’re going to lose our share of south Sudan’s oil," Bashir said.
"So we are going to have a three-year programme, under which we will
reduce the government’s expenses and create a new income for the
government... by extending the taxation umbrella," he added.
He noted that no new taxes will be imposed.
The North and South have been splitting the oil revenue in accordance
with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
There has been conflicting signs on how much the South is willing to
offer the North from its oil exports after independence. Most recently
Southern officials seemed to rule out any possibility of oil sharing
after independence.
But while most of Sudan’s proven daily output of 500,000 oil barrel is
extracted from oilfields in the landlocked south, the pipelines
infrastructure and refineries are based in the north. The South will
therefore be required to pay a fee to transport its oil and ship it
abroad from the terminal in Port Sudan.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in report this year that
the North may lose 75% of oil revenues in a worst case scenario that
would result in domestic and external imbalances.
“With oil revenue constituting more than half of government revenue
and 90 percent of exports, the economy will need to adjust to a
permanent shock, particularly at a time when the country has little
access to external financing”, said the report.
To confront this scenario, the IMF stressed that North Sudan will need
to reduce spending, lift fuel subsidies, reduce tax exemptions and
enhance revenue administration, all of which were outlined by Bashir
today.
The number of ministers will be reduced as a part of the cost-cutting
scheme, Bashir said, while top presidential aide Nafie Ali Nafie will
head a committee charged with drawing up the new taxation policy.
He vowed to enhance transparency and accountability in the government
which many observers say have been severely undermined since the 1989
coup which brought Bashir to power.
"We will start the process of reform first by excluding the civil
service and public service of politicization and political
appointment" he said.
Earlier this year Bashir ordered the establishment of anti-corruption
commission, an organ to help graduates find jobs and to increase the
participation of youth in the party and government.
Sudan is already facing an economic crisis, due to soaring inflation,
a weakening currency and huge foreign debt, estimated at around $38
billion, which together with US sanctions has choked its sources of
external financing.
(ST)
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