Sudan’s Political Spiral

Author:

Vladilen Gusarov

Abstract:

During more than six dozen years after the achievement of the independence in 1956 Sudan has suffered a very complicated political evolution. The forms of rule in the country have many times changed from the parliamentary democracy to the military dictatorship; and the political life has developed not as a stable progressive movement, but practically as a spiral, with its turns going both up and down. At the same time, the essence of the forms of government remained the same: the domination of the representatives of the feudal lords and the bourgeoisie, their various coalitions represented by different political parties.

In 2018, as a result of the sharply aggravated economic crisis, anti-government protests began across the country, caused by rising prices for bread and other essential products. The protests turned into demands for President Bashir’s resignation. On 11 April, he and his Deputy Ahmed Haroon were removed from power and arrested. The country was to be governed for two years by the Transitional Military Council (TMC), which was headed by defense Minister Awad Mohammed Ahmed Ibn Auf. However, due to contradictions between the army command and the opposition, Auf resigned on 13 April, and Abdel Fattah al-Burhan took his place. New attempts of coups continue to the present time. On the 17 of August the negotiations between the TMC and the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) were finished by signing several agreements. Among them was the Constitutional Declaration and the Agreement of the transitional period.

The Constitutional Declaration is fixing the main terms of so called transitional period in Sudan and will be the main legislative base for gradual transmission of the power from the militaries to the civil forces. The document has the principles on which the main organs the power would coordinate their actions. The sides also accepted the final version of the project of the political agreement of the transitional period. The main principles of the political structure of Sudan are fixed in it. The article is devoted to the description and understanding of the various coalitions represented by different political parties.

Keywords:

coup d’etat, political parties, religious sects, May revolution, problem of the South Sudan, Darfur, Revolution of the National Salvation, Transitional Military Council, Forces for Freedom and Change, Constitutional Declaration

DOI:

10.31132/2412-5717-2019-49-4-14-30

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