Government roles assigned to Eastern Front officials

Progress is being made on the items negotiated in the October 2006 Peace Agreement between the Eastern Front and the central Sudanese Government.

In Mid-June, 10 parliamentarians of the governing party stepped down to allow room for eight Eastern Front representatives to sit in the parliament. These seats were made available after requests for seats from other parties were refused. It's not clear about the distribution of seats given to Beja representatives.

On May 21, protests took place in Port Sudan when results were made known of who would represent the Eastern Front in the Governement of National Unity parliament. Beja citizens were upset because they make up the majority of the population [80%] in the region, but only a few of nominated representatives were Beja heritage[18%]. They would not have a balanced share of power. Protestors presented a memo to government officials asking that it be passed on to the Presidency, urging that the nominations not be accepted.

Also, on May 16, the Eastern Front named officials to various government posts including the posts of assistant and advisor to Sudan's President Omar el-Bashir as well as a junior minister.

http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/14633.html
http://www.unmis.org/english/2007Docs/mmr-may17.pdf
http://www.unmis.org/english/2007Docs/mmr-may22.pdf