The Sudanese Congress Party (SCP or SCoP) is a

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

ese centre-left,

social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

, pro-

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

political party created in 1986 as ''National Congress'' (unrelated to the National Congress Party) and renamed as the SCP in 2005.

Creation

Khalid Omer Yousif, former secretary-general of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP), describes the origin of the SCP in terms of three events: the 1977 creation of the Congress of Independent Students (CIS) at

Khartoum University The University of Khartoum (U of K) () is a public university located in Khartoum, Sudan. It is the largest and oldest university in Sudan. UofK was founded as Gordon Memorial College in 1902 and established in 1956 when Sudan gained independence ...

by students opposed to president

Gaafar Nimeiry Gaafar Muhammad an-Nimeiry (otherwise spelled in English as Gaafar Nimeiry, Jaafar Nimeiry, or Ja'far Muhammad Numayri; ; 1 January 193030 May 2009) was a Sudanese military officer and politician who served as the fourth president of Sudan, hea ...

; the creation in 1986, following the 1985 Sudanese Revolution, of the ''National Congress'' political party led by Molana Abdel Majid Imam (unrelated to the Islamist, pan-Arabist National Congress Party); and the renaming of the ''National Congress'' to the ''Sudanese Congress Party'' in a 2005 conference between National Congress and CIS members and graduates.

Leadership and structure

The first head of the SCP was Abdel-Mageed Imam and the second was Ibrahim al-Sheikh. , Omer al-Digair had been "recently" elected as the third head of the SCP. Abdelmonim Omar was Acting President of the SCP in early December 2012.

Persecution

Al-Bashir presidency

On 6 July 2015, SCP party members Mastoor Ahmad Mohammed, Asim Omar Hassan and Ibrahim Mohammed Zain were flogged in

Omdurman Omdurman () is a major city in Sudan. It is the second most populous city in the country, located in the State of Khartoum. Omdurman lies on the west bank of the River Nile, opposite and northwest of the capital city of Khartoum. The city acts ...

after being sentenced in the Omdurman Criminal Court for their campaigning for a boycoot of the April

2015 Sudanese general election General elections were held in Sudan on 13–16 April 2015 to elect the President and the National Assembly. They were originally scheduled for 2 April, but were delayed by eleven days. These were the first elections to be held following the sece ...

. SCP chairman Ibrahim al-Shaikh Abdel Rahman as arrested on 8 June 2014 and detained for 100 days after he publicly criticised the

Rapid Support Forces The Rapid Support Forces (RSF; ) is a paramilitary force formerly operated by the government of Sudan. The RSF grew out of, and is primarily composed of, the Janjaweed militias which previously fought on behalf of the Sudanese government. RSF ...

(RSF). NISS arrested SCP chair Omer al-Digair and seven other key SCP members on the night of 8/9 November 2016, after having arrested 13 other SCP members earlier, who remained in detention. The arrests were carried out in response to "protests and popular activities", according to the SCP.

Hamdok government

In late November 2019, the RSF lodged a legal complaint against Hanadi El Siddig, editor-in-chief of the SCP's newspaper, ''Akhbar El Watan''. El Siddig was charged under the Information Crimes Act for a column ''Without Borders'' that she wrote. SCP legal coordinator Kamal Mohamed El Amin described the complaint and charges as "tools of the former Al Bashir regime" used to oppose

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

Programmes and actions

In 2016, the SCP was described by ''

Radio Dabanga Radio Dabanga (Arabic: راديو دبنقا)(part of Dabanga – Radio TV Online is a radio and online news service that serves Sudan. The shortwave radio has been broadcasting since 1 December 2008. Current broadcasts last for a total of two ...

'' as "one of the most active opposition parties in Sudan". In December 2016, the SCP supported a 3-day civil disobedience action against economic

austerity In economic policy, austerity is a set of Political economy, political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through Government spending, spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three prim ...

measures that caused "huge price hikes". The SCP is a member of the

National Consensus Forces The National Consensus Forces (NCF, ''Ij’maa'') is a coalition of political parties in Sudan that opposed the rule of the National Congress Party, and was initially formed to stand against the NCP in the 2010 Sudanese elections. Farouk Abu Is ...

References

{{Authority control 1986 establishments in Sudan Organisations of the Sudanese revolution Political parties established in 1986 Political parties in Sudan Social democratic parties in Africa