Sudan Opposition and Military agree on a joint Council

Sudan opposition members and the military have agreed on forming a joint civilian-military council that will oversee the transition until the next elections are held.

Members from the ruling Military Transitional Council (MTC), the Declaration of Freedom and Changes Forces and leaders of opposition groups met on Saturday and agreed on form a joint civilian-military council after calls from the masses to hand over power to the civilian rule.

Military council spokesperson Shams Eldin Kabashi told Al Jazeera that talks are undergoing and a positive conclusion will be reached at.

“Talks will continue and we are optimistic on reaching a final result that we can announce to the Sudanese people as soon as possible”.

Ahmed al-Rabie one of the prominent figures in the protest movement’s coalition also said that they have agreed on forming a joint council.

“We agreed on a joint council between the civilian and the military,” “We are now in consultation about what percentage of the council should be represented by civilians and how much by the military”, Ahmed al-Rabie said.

Opposition groups have not given up on camping outside Khartoum demanding the Military Council to hand over power to a civilian government after the then President Omar al-Bashir three year decade was brought to an end on March 11.

On Saturday, members of the Popular Congress Party of late opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi and several protestors clashed outside Khartoum leaving 67 party members injured.

Sadiq al-Mahdi, the head of the National Umma Party in Sudan called upon the Military Transition Council to act transparently during the transition before the elections are held.

“We hope that the civilian authority in the transition period will organize national, economic and international conferences”, he said.

However, there is still a lot of contention of how many members from the civilian side and those from the military side should appear on the council.

“There is still a lot of discord and disagreement between the two sides. The military wants 10 members on this council, three of them civilian, seven of them military. The opposition want the council to be made up of 15 members, eight of them civilians and seven people from the military, Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, reporting from the capital Khartoum said.

“So there are still some very difficult issues to discuss today and in the coming days. The first step that was taken yesterday was the easiest”, he added.

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