A Possible, Safe, and Pragmatic Way-out

Omer B. Abu Haraz

Nothing of a consensus at any level is looming on the horizon. Each of the political parties, arm struggle movements, Sudanese Professional Association, and even the Resistance Committees is in complete or partial disarray. The revolution’s original incubator is split into two non-homogenous factions – the Central Council and the Charter.

The main parties of the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) are showing cracks. The Sudanese Congress Party is heading to a split created by big differences between its President Omer Al-Degair and the prominent figure Khalid Omer (ex-Minister of the dissolved cabinet on October 25, 2021 coup) Umma Party is split between its President Burma Nasir and the Secretary-General El-Wathiq El-Berir. The Sudanese Professional Association which led the uprising of September 2013 and the gallant revolution of December 2018 was broken into two factions, one led by the Communist party and the other by the Unionist Alliance.

The Resistance Committees (RCs) are also divided between the Communist Party and independent youth groups who were approached by some mediators – internal and external – making them entertain the deal of disappearance of the members of the incumbent ruling military council in safe havens outside the country and relaxing the slogan of no negotiations with the military sitting with new army faces. This deal if developed will create a sharp wide crack among the RCs.

The other FFC faction – the Charter – is also incoherent. The Revolutionary Movement headed by El-Hadi Idris is showing an imminent split between the President and other leaders. At the same time, the gap between the two FFCs is beyond bridging.

The Communist Party is taking uncompromising discourse and is keeping the streets unrest alive.

The repeated threatening of the two Generals – Burhan and Himidti – to the FFC (the original) to call for early elections is not realistic and cannot be conducted. A credible census must precede any fair and trustworthy bonafide general elections. A credible census takes not less than 18 months and costs not less than US$200 million. Any attempt to conduct elections with gerrymandering – manipulation of the electoral constituencies – will be disastrous and aggravate the already precarious turmoil in the country.

My repeated calls to thin out of the box are showing the pragmatic way out.

In nutshell my proposal is:

• The ruling military council, after consultation with the players of the arena separately to draft a new Constitutional Document (CD) which calls for two transitional periods. The first for one year and the other two years.
• The first period was to be governed by 100% civilians of non-partisan affiliation. The army to form a transitional military council with its leader only in the palace assuming sovereignty duties only without any involvement in the civilian government.

The duties of the first transitional government are to run the country and to prepare for presidential elections just before the end of the year. Presidential elections do not require census or money.

• The elected president appoints a prime minister and a cabinet of non-partisan members and that will be the start of the two-year second transitional period. The main task of the president and cabinet during the second transitional period is to prepare and conduct the census and draft a permanent constitution. After the census, geographical constituencies should be earmarked equitably and fairly based on the population density in each area.

The President-elect and the government just before the elapse of the two years would conduct elections to form a parliament. The parliament to deliberate on the drafted constitution and pass it with or without amendments. The parliament will decide on which system to adopt – parliamentary or presidential -.

After the elapse of the second transitional period and the adoption of a permanent constitution, the country will automatically be transformed into full-fledge democratic civilian governance.