Turabi regains his authorities from President al-Bashir

The speaker of the Sudanese National Council (parliament), Hassan Turabi, is preparing to regain his party authorities, which were assigned to Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir in December 1998 over the ruling National Congress party.

The Sudanese dailies published on Sunday said Turabi will assume the presidency of the party' s general commission, which includes 60 members, according to a project that provides for reorganizing the party.

This project was approved by the Shoura commission, which is composed of 600 members.

The Sudanese daily al-Anbaa said the party's new leadership commission will replace the leadership office (30 members) and the leadership council (110 members), which used to be headed by al-Bashir.

Among the tasks of the leadership is to ratify the nomination of the vice presidents, ministers and senior officials before these nominations are submitted to the parliament. These amendments to the leadership of the ruling party are considered a new distribution of roles that will not leave an impact on the general public inclination for the Sudanese government.

Turabi, is reassuming the vast authority he already enjoyed since the foundation of the national congress in 1992, authorities he had given up during the nine past months when al-Bashir tightened his fist on the party.

In December 1998, the Sudanese president succeeded in making the first amendments to the leading commissions in the party. He had the backing then of six of its prominent figures, including Minister of Information Ghazi Salaheddine al-Atabani and Minister of Higher Education Ibrahim Ahmad Omar.

The National Conference party is an extension for the Islamic National Front, led by Turabi. In 1989 the front was behind the coup that toppled the government of former Prime Minister al-Sadeq al-Mahdi.