Al-Tayib Zein al-Abdin, a political observer and member of Sudan's Islamic Movement, has described the ongoing National Dialogue as “unbalanced” because it excludes leading opposition parties and rebel groups, but he denied that it was limited to Islamist parties only.

Organizers of the National Dialogue have been saying that it involves over 90 political parties, armed movements and other groups, whereas critics have said that it is not inclusive at all.

“The dialogue included many parties, but they are weak parties,” Zein al-Abdin commented in an interview with Radio Tamazuj. “However, there is the Popular Congress Party led by Turabi, so you can say the big parties are the National Congress Party and Popular Congress Party.”

Zein al-Abdin, who works as a professor of political science at the University of Khartoum, stressed that the National Dialogue is incomplete because it failed to bring in opposition parties which have major influence on the ground.

To address this, the government should adhere to a roadmap previously agreed with other stakeholders, which would bring other opposition groups into the National Dialogue, he said. This would involve allowing political freedoms and creating an enabling environment so that all parties may be allowed to talk to their supporters by organizing rallies in public places without interference.

“The Reform Now Party tried it and it was banned, the Sudanese Congress Party was not allowed. Members of these parties were arrested after rallies for undermining public order,” he explained.

The Sudanese intellectual contended that the ruling National Congress Party has monopolized facilitation of the National Dialogue, saying it was supposed to be only part of the dialogue.

“The facilitation of the dialogue was supposed to be given to neutral bodies... but management of the dialogue is now done by the National Congress Party, the Secretary General is an NCP member, the head of the dialogue is the chairman of the NCP, even the spokesman of the dialogue is Dr. Mustafa Osman Ismail who is the NCP head of political affairs,” he added.