“All the options exist, including taking to the streets” - Turabi

Turabi said he would ignore the presidential decree and continue his political activities within the party, the Sudanese paper ‘Al-Ra’y al-Amm’ reported. The former Speaker said on Tuesday that the suspended 60-member general secretariat had expelled Bashir and six senior aides for violating party rules, though Sudanese media suggested this would have no effect on Bashir’s power base, including the army, whose senior officers on Monday pledged their “full support” for the president. The secretariat described its suspension as illegal and authoritarian, violating the charters of the Congress party.

Turabi criticised Bashir in press interviews for pandering to western influences by undermining the religion of God, and issued thinly-veiled threats of an Islamist revolution to overthrow what he described as a power-hungry military dictatorship. The elected leaders of the Congress party would meet to decide on what action to take against Bashir, but “any possibility exists, including an armed confrontation,” Turabi said. If there were a revolution, it would not be just against the regime but would be a penetrating one for the cause of Islam, he said.

Bashir has sought to re-establish friendly international relations, with the west as well as with Arab countries, since suspending the national assembly that was Turabi’s power base and seeking to marginalise him within Sudanese politics.