Sudan’s protest movement said that it is determined to have a civilian as the head of a new governing council ahead of negotiations yesterday with army rulers to finalize its makeup.
Talks between the ruling military council and the protest movement over the planned transfer of power were to resume amid international pressure to return to the table after the generals suspended negotiations last week.
The Alliance for Freedom and Change, the umbrella group that brought down former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir after months-long protests against his three-decade rule, said the talks were to begin at 9pm.
“The talks will revolve around outstanding issues concerning the representation in the sovereign council and its chairmanship,” the alliance said in a statement.
The generals and protest leaders were at loggerheads over the final composition of the next ruling body, the thorniest issue so far in negotiations between the two sides.
The generals say that the new body should be military-led, but the protest leaders said they are determined to have a “civilian sovereign council led by a civilian as its chairman and having a limited military representation.”
The military council that took power after ousting al-Bashir on April 11 is headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the generals negotiating with the protesters have previously said that al-Burhan would lead the new governing body, too.
Before talks were suspended, the two sides had agreed on several key issues, including a three-year transition period and the creation of a 300-member parliament, with two-thirds of lawmakers to come from the protesters’ umbrella group.
However, yesterday’s negotiations came against the backdrop of rising tensions after hundreds of supporters of several Muslim movements rallied outside the presidential palace to reject any civilian administration deal that excludes Shariah law as its guiding principle.
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