Thousands of people rallied on the streets in several Sudanese cities including the capital Khartoum, to call for disbanding of former deposed President Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party, reported Yahoo News.
“Dissolve the National Congress Party,” the banners held by the protesters read.
Organized by the Sudanese Professionals Association, the rallies also marked the 55th anniversary of the first popular October 21, 1964 uprising that had removed the then-military leader Ibrahim Abboud.
Notably, the current transitional government in Sudan came to power after a similar uprising, which eventually led the military to overthrow al-Bashir. Al-Bashir and his National Congress Party ruled Sudan for thirty long years from 1989, when he came to power in a coup. A joint military-civilian administration, which currently rules Sudan, has been allotted the task of paving a way towards democratic elections in just over three years.
The demonstrators showed their support for the transitional government and renewed demands of dissolution of the former ruling National Congress Party, the removal of its partisans from public institutions, and set up of an independent investigation into the deadly break-up of protests in June that resulted in dozens of causalities among the protesters.
The demonstrations were held in different areas of Khartoum state, and the cities of El Obeid and Attbara and other areas where the people carried banners, and chanted slogans demanding justice.
They shouted, “blood for blood, we do not accept blood money”, and “the people want to take revenge for the martyrs”.
The SPA called for the appointment of regional governors and the make-up of the legislative body as part of the August power-sharing agreement signed between the pro-democracy protesters and the country’s powerful military. The demonstrators went on to condemn the government’s decision to not ban the activities of al-Bashir’s party and called for confiscation of its premises and assets.
