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Sudan
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was similarly based on a
religious order, the Khatmiyyah organization. Ever since the Khatmiyyah
opposed the Mahdist movement in the 1880s, it has been a rival
of the Ansar. Although the Khatmiyyah was more broadly based than
the Ansar, it was generally less effective politically. Historically,
the DUP and its predecessors were plagued by factionalism, stemming
largely from the differing perspectives of secular-minded professionals
in the party and the more traditional religious values of their
Khatmiyyah supporters. The DUP leader and hereditary Khatmiyyah
spiritual guide since 1968, Muhammad Uthman al Mirghani, tried
to keep these tensions in check by avoiding firm stances on controversial
political issues. In particular, he refrained from public criticism
of Nimeiri's September Laws so as not to alienate Khatmiyyah followers
who approved of implementing the sharia. In the 1986 parliamentary
elections, the DUP won the second largest number of seats and
agreed to participate in Sadiq al Mahdi's coalition government.
Like Sadiq al Mahdi, Mirghani felt uneasy about abrogating the
sharia, as demanded by the SPLM, and supported the idea that the
September Laws could be revised to expunge the "unIslamic " content
added by Nimeiri.
By late 1988, however, other DUP leaders had persuaded Mirghani
that the Islamic law issue was the main obstacle to a peaceful
resolution of the civil war. Mirghani himself became convinced
that the war posed a more serious danger to Sudan than did any
compromise over the sharia. It was this attitude that prompted
him to meet with Garang in Ethiopia where he negotiated a cease-fire
agreement based on a commitment to abolish the September Laws.
During the next six months leading up to the June 1989 coup, Mirghani
worked to build support for the agreement, and in the process
emerged as the most important Muslim religious figure to advocate
concessions on the implementation of the sharia. Following the
coup, Mirghani fled into exile and he has remained in Egypt. Since
1989, the RCC-NS has attempted to exploit DUP factionalism by
coopting party officials who contested Mirghani's leadership,
but these efforts failed to weaken the DUP as an opposition group.
Data as of June 1991
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