 The Sudanese government and an alliance of opposition groups have reached a tentative agreement on the country's political future. Building on a peace accord already signed with southern rebels, the power-sharing deal struck by Khartoum and the SPLM rebel group to end 21 years of civil war allocates a proportion of seats in a new national government to other parties. Sunday's agreement with the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will pave the way for discussions on how to divide up those seats and how to integrate opposition armed forces into the national army. NDA spokesman Hatim al-Sirr said the two sides would set up joint committees to deal with both issues. "On the military forces, it was agreed to form a joint committee between the government and the NDA to reconcile the points of view," he said.
| Good idea. Form a committee. That always works... |
The committee on political representation will discuss the proportion of posts the NDA will hold in the legislative and executive bodies during a transitional period, he added. Apart from the SPLM, the other main group in the NDA is the Democratic Unionist Party, one of the big traditional parties in the Arab north. Other members include the Sudanese Communist Party, the Baath Party, the Beja Congress from the east of Sudan, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) from Darfur in the west and an alliance of southern parties independent of the SPLM. Sudan's other big northern party, the Umma Party, is not a member.
| Hmmm... I'd consider that a good sign... |
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