After the Sudan Revolution .. Bashir's party felt the way back from isolation

Ahmed Fadl-Khartoum

From a distance, Sudan's National Congress Party (NCP) is groping for its return to political life after a revolution that toppled its three-decade power and threw its symbols into the monster cells of the old Kober Prison in Khartoum North.

In the first appearance of the NCP-appointed Ibrahim Ghandour since those events, Ghandour identified with change as saying that what happened in Sudan was a popular uprising that was complemented by the army's bias according to the literature and history of the Sudanese in the revolutions of October 21, 1964 and April 6, 1984.

In a recent interview with Al-Hurra, Ghandour said the NCP contributed to the revolution because it did not clash with the change and the impact of the withdrawal.

According to an official source in the Council of Political Parties Affairs (government agency), the Council has not received any requests to dissolve, ban or freeze the National Congress Party.

Blocking option
According to the source of the island Net that the Council of Parties is not authorized to dissolve or ban any of the parties unless the request came from the sovereign or a court ruling.

He asserts that in case any justification for the Council of Parties to dissolve or freeze the NCP is complete, the latter will have the right to appeal the decision of the government body or the judicial ruling to the Supreme Court and then the Constitutional Court.

The status quo allows, despite the reality of the revolution, the movement and activity of the party, which may face a popular rupture manifested in the revolution, which first sparked a fire targeting the headquarters of the National Convention in the cities of the country.

In light of the timidity of the limited public activity of the National Congress emerged since the second session of the trial of ousted President Omar al-Bashir, the party, through dozens outside the court held up pictures of al-Bashir and chanted slogans Islamists usual.

Old position
In the last years of the Bashir era, his party has not been at the heart of one man as opponents of Bashir's frequent nomination have grown.

The party's leader Amin Hassan Omar earlier objected to Bashir's nomination in the 2015 elections, accusing party leader Ali Osman Mohamed Taha of practicing "moral compulsion" to influence the Shura members and the National Congress Leadership Council for Bashir's nomination.

Despite the growing rejection of Bashir's candidacy in the 2020 elections by amending the constitution, they were unable to create a new formula that excludes Bashir and preserves the party's entity at the same time.

NCP leader Qutbi al-Mahdi told Al Jazeera Net that the majority was unhappy with Bashir's re-nomination and that, according to his own information, most of their parliament members were ready to vote against a constitutional amendment in favor of Bashir.

The challenge of change
How the NCP may return is a challenge. It may face the fate of the Socialist Union, which evaporated after the ouster of former President Jaafar Nimeiri, which Ibrahim Ghandour has ruled out.

Qutbi al-Mahdi warns of scenarios that would change the name of the party to the "Reform Movement for Development and Justice", saying that changing the name is not in the interest because it means a condemnation of all the history of the National Congress.

But at the same time, it is necessary to change the leadership and faces as a necessary requirement for public opinion and even for membership and rules of the party, which will not satisfy the old faces against the backdrop of a long crisis of confidence.

Audio recordings of the patriotic Islamist leader Ahmed Mohamed during the protests that toppled Bashir were widely followed when the president and first-class leaders demanded he step down from power and the party leadership.

Grim Options
The Alliance of Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, which led the revolution, does not seem enthusiastic about any arbitrary choices towards the NCP. "We suffered from exclusion and we do not like it," says coalition leader Haider al-Safi.

Al-Safi, a leader in the Republican Party, leaves the fate of the National Congress of the Revolution's slogan "freedom, peace and justice" to determine whether the parties remain.

He believes that the NCP has a prospect in the future if it can "separate the ideology of religion" and become an entity such as the Sudanese Congress Party.

The return of the party depends on the ability of its free symbols to untangle the party and its leaders accused of killing demonstrators and economic deterioration if convicted by the judiciary, explaining that this party needs legal and political screening to achieve this.

The possibilities of extremism
Activists on social media feared a subversive agenda, possibly led by NCP factions, prompting a lawyer from Zero Corruption to file an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal demanding the dissolution of the NCP, claiming the party had armed "shadow battalions".

National Congress leader Qutbi al-Mahdi does not rule out a mixed reaction, ranging from political opposition to a military coup by stakeholders in the former regime.

But the man returns and says that the majority was not satisfied with the internal conditions of the party, and that they have no desire to remove the new reality, as evidenced by the recognition of Ibrahim Ghandour revolution.