SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Foreign Policy - The Enemies of Sudan’s Democracy Are Lurking Everywhere
Rebecca Hamilton, the author of Fighting for Darfur, analyses the obstacles to Sudan’s democratic transition from the former ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the security sector.
Hamilton warns that pre--mature elections incur the risk of established political parties gaining power, before noting the dominance of NCP loyalists in the civil service, judicial and media institutions. Journalist Ahmed Ahmed is quoted warning that any Sudanese press union elections would legitimise NCP dominance as the union is dominated by spies.
Sudan’s minister of media and information Faisal Saleh says that his principled belief in freedom of expression means he is unable to prevent the NCP from undermining the transition in the local media.
To mitigate the financial power of the security sector, Hamilton calls for the that US’ removal of Sudan’s state sponsor of terrorism designation to be conditioned upon audits of the security sector and the RSF.