Fears campaign against constitutional amendments

Leading member of Sudan’s Popular Conference Party Taj Al Din Banka expressed his concern over what he described as the brutal campaign to undermine the constitutional amendments proposed by his party to expand the extent of freedoms in the country during the coming period. He added that their proposals, especially related to the freedoms, have been strongly attacked by Islamic Faqh Academy.

He added, during an interview with “Arabs Today”, that his party’s proposals have not been submitted individually, as they came upon the recommendations concluded by the national dialogue. He added that Popular Conference Party strongly focuses on the question of freedoms as one of the major guarantees to ensure the stability in the country during the coming period.

He denied what was published over their conditions to participate in the government, saying that their only condition is the governmental commitment to meet the recommendations concluded during the national dialogue. He added, “We do not have conditions, while we remind the people that the government should honor its commitment.”

He refuted the attempts to link between the party’s proposals and the previous proposals adopted by the party’s former leader Hassan Al Torabi, saying that such attempts aim to mislead the public opinion. He stressed that the proposed amendment have been passed by the participants in the national dialogue.

According to 2005 constitution, he added, the president is the only person who have the authority to send constitutional amendments to the parliament, while the ruling party turned to send amendments over the appointment of the prime minister, the increase of parliamentary seats, and the exclusion of the attorney general from his position.

He revealed that the parliament referred the constitutional amendments proposals to a consulting committee to discuss them to return them the parliament to be discussed. He expressed concern over the campaign launched against their proposals from the country’s religious authority. He added that the preachers turned to smear them during the sermons in the mosques upon orders from the religious authorities.