Sudan Ruling Party Reformers to Set Up 'New Party'

Three leading reformers faced with expulsion from Sudan's ruling party are forming a new one following a deadly crackdown on protests last month, one of them said Saturday.

"We decided to establish a new party carrying the hopes of the Sudanese people," Fadlallah Ahmed Abdallah, an MP with the governing National Congress Party (NCP), told Agence France Presse.

"We have already put in motion a plan to establish this party."

The name and structure of the new organization will be revealed within one week, Abdallah added.

Even before the September demonstrations, in which dozens died, critics within the NCP had raised concerns, which included allegations of corruption and a drift from Islamic values.

But Khalid Tigani, an analyst and chief editor of the weekly economic newspaper Elaff, told AFP that by seeking to expel its own members the NCP has shown that it "is not ready to make any compromise."

On Thursday, an internal NCP investigative committee ruled that Abdallah, former sports minister Hassan Osman Riziq and ex-presidential adviser Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani should be ousted after they signed a memorandum criticizing the regime's crackdown on protests over price rises in September.

Atabani was the lead signatory but 30 other prominent reformers also signed the memorandum which they sent to President Omar al-Bashir and made public.

They charged that the government's response to the demonstrations over fuel price hikes betrayed the regime's Islamic foundations.

Abdallah, a former engineering commissioner in West Darfur state, said all the signatories planned to join the new party and that the members of parliament in the group are going to resign.

Atabani and Riziq are also NCP legislators.

Abdallah said retired military officers who signed the memorandum will also join the new group.

These include former brigadier Mohammed Ibrahim, who was sentenced to five years in prison in April for allegedly leading a coup plot against the regime last year.

Bashir later granted amnesty to him and others involved.

In their memorandum, the reformers made a series of recommendations including for an independent probe of the shooting of civilians during the protests, and for a reversal of the price increases.

Instead, they found themselves under investigation by the party.

Analysts say the spontaneous demonstrations, the worst urban unrest under Bashir 24-year rule, pointed to an urgent need for reform by a government grappling with wars, dissension within its own ranks, economic crisis and international isolation.

Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir, who led the internal probe, said the NCP membership of Abdallah, Riziq and Atabani would be revoked if a 400-member party council gives final approval.

He said six others who endorsed the memorandum had been suspended from party activities for one year.

They violated party rules by setting up a "parallel organisation" and by communicating with other political parties without NCP approval, Tahir said.

"We cannot ignore that our party needs reform," he said, adding that a committee will bring proposals for change to the NCP congress next year.

Analyst Tigani said dissent is increasing within the NCP which is "not a genuine political party" because it does not tolerate diversity of opinion and is "dependent completely on the authority of the government."

He said the government will limit the ability of the dissidents' new party to operate.

"I think the NCP knows that they will take support from inside NCP," he said.

Atabani told AFP on Monday that the NCP was spending too much time on "this minor internal issue at a time when the country is on the verge of collapse."

Thousands of people, many of them Khartoum-area poor, took to the streets when the government cut fuel subsidies, forcing retail prices up by more than 60 percent.

Bashir said the protests were part of an effort to end his rule, using "agents, thieves and hijackers."

The reformers said the government's economic measures were not presented to parliament and citizens had no chance to give input peacefully.

They called for "professionals" to take over economic policy assisted by members of other political parties.

The memorandum also sought an end to press censorship, and respect for constitutional freedoms including peaceful assembly.