Al-Bashir re-elected as president of the ruling party

The Sudanese ruling national party has renewed the term of office for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir as a president for the party for a two- year new session.

Following his election at the party's general conference which is attended by 6,000 members and Arab and African delegations on Wednesday, President al-Bashir vowed to keep his party as a vanguard for the political forces in the country regardless to changes in the political map.

He repeated his country's rejection of the American military campaign against Afghanistan because it targets the civilians and called for an international identification of terrorism.

The party's secretary general Ibrahim Ahmad Omar said that his government will not give up committing to the Islamic Sharia and its jurisprudence.

However, this conference which is being held for the first time in an ordinary meeting since its former leader Hassan al-Turabi established an independent party in 2000 started discussions of several papers mainly the political paper which called for making constitutional amendments including founding the post of the first minister ( a prime minister). A post which has not existed since President al-Bashir assumed power in Sudan in 1989, expanding the authorities of the President and giving his the authority of exempting the ruler of provinces from their posts and calling for early parliamentary elections.

Nevertheless, government officials are calling for making democratic changes and constitutional amendments that permit the election of the ruler of provinces, directly. This issue had previously led to solving the previous parliament which was then led by al-Turabi.