KHARTOUM: Sudanese Islamist scholars have formed a National Movement for Change that hopes to lead a search for alternatives to the country’s “failed” political system, a member said Thursday.
“We are calling on other people from different political or cultural (groups) or think tanks to join us to try to find a new way for Sudan,” Khalid Tigani, one of about 10 members of the group, said.
He said the movement was not a political party and that a convention would later decide what form it would take.
The Movement for Change is the latest sign of public frustration with the 24-year regime of President Omar Hassan Al Bashir, who seized power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989.
Critics have become increasingly vocal since the government in September slashed fuel price subsidies, leading to the worst urban unrest of Bashir’s rule.
Analysts said the spontaneous demonstrations pointed to an urgent need for reform by the government.
Tigani said the current government was part of the broken system but “not the whole story”.
“We are trying to open a very wide, broad discussion about the whole political experiment of Sudan during the last 60 years,” said Tigani, chief editor of weekly economic newspaper Elaff.
AFP
