The Popular Congress Party (PCP, ) is an Islamist political party in Sudan. The party was founded by Hassan al-Turabi.Hassan al-Turabi
/ref> The party emerged from a split within the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in 1999, due to differences between Turabi and President

Omar al-Bashir Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir (born 1 January 1944) is a Sudanese former military officer and politician who served as Head of state of Sudan, Sudan's head of state under various titles from 1989 until 2019, when he was deposed in 2019 Sudanese c ...

. The party is one of the most outspoken against the NCP, advocating a popular uprising to overthrow the government. The party relies heavily on displaced Western Sudanese living in Khartoum's shanty towns for support. The party is a member of the National Consensus Forces opposition alliance.

History

Al-Turabi had a falling out with al-Bashir in 1999, when al-Turabi again began to spend time in jail or under

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

. The power struggle between al-Bashir and al-Turabi resulted in al-Turabi’s expulsion from the NCP. As a consequence, al-Turabi established the PCP (initially called the Popular National Congress) in August 2000 in opposition to the NCP. After al-Turabi created the PCP, al-Bashir’s security forces regularly harassed its meetings and arrested participants. In February 2001, the PCP signed a "memorandum of understanding" in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

with the

Sudan People's Liberation Movement The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM; , ''Al-Ḥarakat ash-Shaʿbiyyat liTaḥrīr as-Sūdān'') is a political party in South Sudan. It was initially founded as the political wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA; a key belli ...

. Among other things, the memorandum noted that self-determination is a legitimate right of the people of

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

. Al-Turabi saw the memorandum as a way to undermine al-Bashir and improve his own position; it resulted in al-Turabi’s arrest. After three months in prison, the government released al-Turabi from prison and put him under house arrest. PCP activity virtually came to a halt; al-Bashir dropped charges against PCP supporters near the end of 2001. Released from detention, al-Turabi was rearrested in March 2003 on charges of masterminding a coup attempt. The government dismissed these charges against al-Turabi and the PCP in December 2004 but continued to keep him in detention and banned party activity. Al-Turabi managed, however, to have a significant impact on political developments in Sudan from jail or house arrest and eventually was released. There is strong evidence that the PCP established an alliance with the rebel

Justice and Equality Movement The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM; , ') is an opposition group in Sudan founded by Khalil Ibrahim. Gibril Ibrahim has led the group since January 2012 after the death of Khalil, his brother, in December 2011. The JEM supported the removal ...

Darfur Darfur ( ; ) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju () while ruled by the Daju, who migrated from Meroë , and it was renamed Dartunjur () when the Tunjur ruled the area. ...

in order to put additional pressure on the government. In the flawed April 2010 elections, the PCP candidate for president, Abdullah Deng Nhial, a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

from the

Dinka The Dinka people () are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Mangalla-Bor to Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile (two out of three provinces that were formerly part of southern ...

tribe, received only 4 percent of the vote. The party newspaper, ''Ray al-Shaab'', has been banned since 2012.

References

External links

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{{Sudanese political parties Islamic political parties in Sudan Sunni Islam in Sudan Offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood