Sudan to announce new national government

Sudan is set to announce a new national government early next month including a minister to take over the newly recreated post of prime minister, a senior official disclosed yesterday.

The Sudanese Presidential Assistant Ibrahim Mahmoud said in a press conference in Khartoum that President Omar Al-Bashir will issue a decree slated for 10 January to declare the new government once the arrangements are finalised.

The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the political parties participating in national dialogue efforts have engaged in broad-based consultations to name the new prime minister and the entire cabinet, Mahmoud said.

He called on the opposition to join the new government. “The doors are still open for the boycotters to join the national consensus government,” he said. Opposition members boycotted the elections in Sudan on the grounds that they do not represent true democratisation.

On Wednesday, Sudan’s parliament endorsed a raft of constitutional amendments, one of which revives the country’s prime ministerial post for the first time since Al-Bashir came to power after a 1989 coup. The constitutional changes give the president more power, including authority to appoint cabinet ministers.