From the Liveblog of
Sunday, December 5, 2021
Top Sudan general says military officials won’t run in upcoming election
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Sudan’s top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Sunday denies that military and paramilitary members of the transitional administration could run for the country’s July 2023 elections.
“The president of the Sovereign Council denied what the Agence France-Presse reported about the participation of the military in the upcoming elections,” his office says in a statement.
Sudan has been run by a joint military-civilian ruling council since August 2019, but civilian members were changed following a coup in October this year.
AFP asked Burhan in an interview on Saturday whether the military components and the paramilitary members of the transitional Council will be able to participate in elections planned for 2023.
Burhan responded by saying the August 2019 deal had “included a clear clause that all participants of the transitional period will not be allowed to take part of the period that directly follows it.”
But a landmark 2020 peace deal with rebel groups “granted some participants to the transitional period the right to become part of the government” that followed the transition, he said.
The statement issued on Sunday said Burhan meant that only ex-rebel groups that signed a peace deal in 2020 could be candidates in the planned elections.
The Times of Israel Community.