national dialogue Archives - Jean-Jacques Cornish

President Jacob Zuma expresses concern over recent violence in DRC

Jean-Jacques Cornish — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 22:00:00 +0000

President Jacob Zuma’s expressed concern over violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo that’s resulted in more than 100 deaths in the past few days.

He says these incidents threaten the hard won democratic gains made by the DRC through the past two elections.

President Zuma calls upon on all the parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo to participate in the Inclusive National Dialogue aimed at bringing peace in the DRC through the adoption of a Roadmap to national elections.

The deaths have come as authorities respond to protestors demanding President Joseph Kabila call elections before the end of the year when his mandate expires.

Puma’s statement calls on all parties to exercise restraint and to take urgent steps to end the violence and restore the protection given to the people of DRC through its Constitution.

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Election win for Bashir is no surprise at all

Jean-Jacques Cornish — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 22:00:00 +0000

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s been reelected with more than 94 percent of the vote in polls in which he had faced no serious challenger.
His officials say there was a 46 percent turnout. Foreign observers of the poll earlier this month say it was at least ten percent lower – despite four days of voting

President Omar al-Bashir has five more years to face major challenges in solving Sudan’s economic woes and ending its international isolation.

He’s wanted by the International Criminal Court over war crimes in the western region of Darfur. This curtails his ability to travel abroad freely.

Sudan remains subject to a US trade embargo for hosting late Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the 1990s and for rights abuses.

Bashir has to win over the international community with a long-promised national dialogue with the opposition and with new foreign alliances.

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Sudan will benefit from Washington’s lessons in Cuba and Iran

Jean-Jacques Cornish — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 22:00:00 +0000

Sudan’s Vice President says his country will benefit from lessons the United States has learned in Cuba and Iran.
Speaking to reporters covering elections in Sudan, he’s attacked the double standards applied to his country by the European Union saying the poll cannot be credible.
Ends intro
Vice President Hassabo Mohammed Abdurahman says Sudan’s different from Cuba and Iran.
But in all three cases Washington’s pursued wrong policies of confrontation and sanctions.
The Sudanese vice president says the US has seen the error of its ways.
(take in the Hassabo clip here)
Abdurahman slams the west for failing to lift sanctions following the separation of South Sudan in 2011 and not meeting its promise to help finance that difficult adaptation.
He says they’re still trying to interfere in Sudan’s internal affairs by criticising the current election that he insists will be followed by national dialogue including the opposition groups boycotting the poll.

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Voting quiet in Sudan election

Jean-Jacques Cornish — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 22:00:00 +0000

A second day of voting starts shortly in Sudan presidential, parliamentary and state elections. Yesterday (Monday) passed peacefully with President Omar Al Bashir voting at a Christian school in the capital Khartoum accompanied by his two wives and a number of advisors, cabinet ministers and generals. The turnout so far is reportedly low across Sudan’s 18 provinces.
ends intro
With some political parties turning their back on the election, parliamentary candidate for the ruling National Congress Party Nafi Ali Nafi says the success of the election will best be guaged by the turnout.
Presidential advisor Ibrahim Ghandour voices government anger at the European Union assertion that an environment conducive to participatory and credible elections doesn’t exist in Sudan.
With Sudan eager to follow Iran and Cuba in from the cold, Ghandour says it’s very important what the world makes of these elections which go into a third and final day of internal voting tomorrow before moving to seven foreign centers for a further three days of polling.
He insists though that the most important view is that of the Sudanese people themselves.
Voting has been cancelled in two regions of Darfur and seven in South Kordofan because rebel activity makes it too dangerous.
Ghandour says the government will move from this election into the national dialogue it launched at the beginning of last year following deadly unrest in September 2013.

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Presidential advisor explains why they didn’t go to talks

Jean-Jacques Cornish — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 22:00:00 +0000

Sudanese presidential advisor Ibrahim Ghandour explains why the government turned down former South African President Thabo Mbeki’s invitation for talks with opposition groups before the elections now underway.
He says its vitally important what the world thinks of this exercise, but even more important is the impression the poll makes on the
Sudanese people.

Ibrahim Ghandour is one of the most powerful men in Sudan.
He voted at the polling station today where President Omar Al Bashir, his ministers, generals and two wives cast their ballots.
Ghandour says they couldn’t attend the talks called by Thabo Mbeki two weeks before the election because the opposition wanted to have the poll cancelled.
But his government will press ahead with the national dialogue
He says he’s written two letters to Mbeki explaining this.

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Sudan’s democratic train does not end with elections

Jean-Jacques Cornish — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 22:00:00 +0000

Voting has gone peacefully on day one of Sudan’s three day elections. The country’s former deputy president says those parties boycotting the polls have an opportunity to climb aboard the diplomatic train at the national dialogue that will follow it.

Former Sudanese deputy president Yusuf Al Haj Adam cast his ballot at the St Francis School in Khartoum today, shortly before President Omar Al Bashir was fast-tracked through the process at the same venue. Adam had plenty of time to talk to reporters as he stood in the queue. He says the election is by no means the end of the democratic process. Adam says this would extend to new elections if the national dialogue agreed that it was necessary.

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Sudan wants to be next in line to fall into US favour

Jean-Jacques Cornish — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 22:00:00 +0000

By Jean-Jacques Cornish
Days after a handshake ended a half century of US enmity with Cuba and weeks after Washington ended 36 years of daggers drawn with Tehran by striking a deal limiting Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity, Sudan is voicing expectations of being next in line for better treatment by the last remaining superpower.
The country made it onto the U.S. terrorism list for, among other things, sheltering Osama Bin Laden and stayed there because of its harsh suppression of separatism in its western province of Darfur. Sudan’s president Omar al Bashir is still wanted by the International Criminal court to face charges of crimes against humanity in Darfur.
But in 2011 it accepted the secession by South Sudan, earning kudos from Washington and the international community at large.
On Monday, 13 million registered voters head for the polls for presidential, parliamentary and state elections that the Sudanese government is at pains to demonstrate are free and fair.
It is doing this in the face of a boycott by a small but vociferous group of parties who maintain Bashir has stalled on the political dialogue he launched at the start of 2014.
Washington, together in the western troika on Sudan with Norway and Britain have criticised holding the election before the promised national dialogue.
The European Union holds that this timing undermines the legitimacy of the process.
This provoked an angry response from Khartoum that the EU stance amounts to spiritual support for armed rebel movements fighting the government in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan provinces.
The Sudanese government says its constitutionally obliged to hold elections now. It’s statement stipulates that it will return to national dialogue after the poll.
The dialogue was necessitated by violent protests against Bashir in 2013 that left a number of dead.
Nafi Ali Nafi, who as presidential advisor until last year was considered the third most powerful man in Sudan and is now a parliamentary candidate, says the dialogue was bogged down in procedural issues raised by the opposition.
“They were not interested in engaging on substantive matters,” says Nafi. “They were insisting on the government dissolving and becoming a transitional administration.
“In other words they wanted their prize even before the talks proper started.”
Bashir, who came to powering coup 25 years ago and subsequently won two elections , has further complicated matters by going back on an undertaking not to seek another term.
“That was not his decision to make,” insists Nafi. “It is a matter for the ruling National Congress Party to decide.”
While there is a significant body of international opinion dismissing the poll as a sham, Washington is coming around to the view that Bashir is the best of a number of bad options.
US sources say the strongman manages to maintain stability in a dangerous neighbourhood.
By supporting the government in Yemen against mounting rebel attack, Sudan is squarely onside with the U.S.
Above all, though, the fear in Washington and indeed in other Western capitals, is of a repetition of the Libyan nightmare where they pushed for and won the first prize of getting rid of Muammar Gadaffi and ended up with a catastrophic failed state feeding and arming terrorists in the region and beyond.

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