President lifts ban on political parties

Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir has lifted a ban on political parties, as a step towards his goal of establishing democratic institutions in the country, a Sudanese diplomat in Nairobi has told IRIN. Bashir abolished all political parties when he took over power in a coup in 1989. Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, the charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, said on Monday that legislation aimed at establishing freedom of association was enacted in 1997. He said the latest presidential move was meant to lift some of the tough regulations governing the registration of parties. "We have been in the democratic process. This is just part of it," he said. With the lifting of the ban, Sudan's more than 10 opposition political parties will be able to fully participate in the country's political life, have full access to the media, and be able to contact their constituents, according to Dirdeiry. The lifting of the ban has coincided with the arrival in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, of Alan Goulty, the British envoy to Sudan, and the opening on Monday of the second phase of Sudanese peace talks in the southwestern Kenyan town of Machakos. Goulty, who arrived in Khartoum, also on Monday, is on a two-day visit for talks on the Sudanese peace process aimed at ending the country's 19-year-civil war, according to AFP. "We have had a good discussion on the need to plan for implementation of the peace agreement which will be coming soon," the agency quoted Goulty as saying after meeting Karam al-Din Abd al-Mawla, the Sudanese international cooperation minister, on Monday. The talks are a follow-up to talks held in July, which culminated in a historic agreement, the Machakos Protocol, being signed between the main warring parties - the Khartoum government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). Under the deal, the parties agreed that a referendum for the population of southern Sudan - the scene of fierce fighting between Khartoum and the SPLM/A since 1983 - be conducted in six years' time to choose between to secession or remaining within a united Sudan. The agreement was hailed as a breakthrough, but renewed fighting in the south in the last few weeks since it was signed has been seen as a setback, raising fears of lack of commitment to the accord on the part of the signatories.