Sudanese parliament endorses popular consultation law as SPLM MPs walked out
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July 20, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese parliament has approved
amendments to the law organizing popular consultations in the Blue
Nile and South Kordofan states, extending the deadline of the
controversial process by six months.
The Popular consultation is a mechanism mandated by the 2005
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to ascertain local views in the
two states on the implementation of that agreement and how governance
relationship with Khartoum should be re-organized.
The process fell well behind scheduled as is the norm with many of the
CPA’s mechanisms, stoking local discontent in the volatile states
which witnessed severe battles during the years of Sudan’s second
civil wars and whose population largely sided with the south.
In a session held on Wednesday, the Sudanese parliament dominated by
the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) endorsed the draft popular
consultation law referred by the cabinet which introduced amendments
extending the deadline of the process for a period of six months. The
approved bill also empowers the Sudanese president to extend it
further at the request of the commissions administering the exercise.
MPs of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement’s (SPLM) northern sector
walked out of the session in protest after their request to defer
deliberations on the law until a political agreement is reached
between the SPLM and the NCP was rejected.
The head of the SPLM’s parliamentary bloc Kamndan Goda announced their
walkout from the session, saying they refused to be a part in
approving this law in view of the fact that the parliament ignored
their written request for deferral.
The walkout of the SPLM’s mps triggered an angry reaction by the
parliament’s speaker and the NCP’s senior member, Ahmad Ibrahim
Al-Tahir, who threatened to take measures against the SPLM’s MPs if
they repeated their walkout, saying that he does not see a reason for
postponing approval of the law.
Malik Agar, chairman of the SPLM’s northern sector and governor of the
Blue Nile State, warned on Monday that approving the law would be a
violation of the CPA and that he would not recognize it. He said that
the government had bypassed the Blue Nile’s government and its elected
governor when it introduced amendments to the law.
He called on the citizens to "resist the unjust and oppressive law
which was passed by a single party that represents no one but itself".
The SPLM figure warned earlier this month that if the ongoing fighting
in South Kordofan spilled into his state and Sudan’s war-torn western
region of Darfur, it would be "coordinated," because "the enemy of
your enemy is your ally."
South Kordofan has been racked by violent clashes between north Sudan
army and SPLM forces since 5 June.
A political agreement signed earlier this month between the SPLM and
the NCP to deescalate the situation failed to stop the fighting which
erupted soon after contentious state elections saw the NCP’s candidate
Ahmad Harun declared winner of the governor position over the SPLM’s
leader in South Kordofan Abdul Aziz al-Hilu.
(ST)
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