Sudan’s Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) acknowledged that the greatest challenge facing the interim constitutional document is the army’s unwillingness to allow a full democratic transition in the North African nation coupled with a weak civilian government.
Last October, Sudan's ruling council head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced the dissolution of the transitional sovereign council and the government in what was seen as a military coup by civilian forces.
Speaking at an FFC workshop in Khartoum, former trade minister Madani Abbas Madani said: “Army leaders sided with change after the removal of the head of the former regime, Omar al-Bashir, but at the same time they sought to preserve the political and economic role of the military institution, which created a different atmosphere.”
“The military sought to seize power through its presence in the Sovereignty Council and obtained broad executive and legislative powers and dominance over the security services,” he added.
“It also placed under its authority the peace process and commissions, although they are the prerogatives of the executive authority,” he noted.
The former trade official pointed out that “the biggest problem with the constitutional document is that it did not specify the powers and competencies of the Security and Defense Council, allowing the military to use the gap to eclipse the role of the executive body.”
“This defect in the constitutional document granted the Sovereignty Council, which is shared by the military and civilians, the powers of legislation, security and interference in the executive government and the judicial organs,” explained Madani.
The failure to unify the final goals of the two parties to the Constitutional Document has directly inhibited civil democratic transition, he remarked, recalling the difficulty in reaching a transitional constitutional achievement without an agreement between the parties.
