(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The leading dissident who was expelled from Sudan's ruling party last month said yesterday he has launched a new "Reform" party which has attracted thousands of followers.
Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani (pictured), ex-adviser to President Omar Hassan Bashir, also said he does not rule out standing as a presidential candidate in 2015, although he is "no Hercules".
Atabani said his Reform Now Movement has lodged an application with the registrar of political parties and should be "fully registered" in three months.
Bashir's National Congress Party in November ousted Atabani and two other high-profile members.
They were among more than 30 prominent NCP reformers who issued a memorandum to Bashir saying the government's response to September fuel price demonstrations betrayed its Islamic foundations.
The split by Atabani's group is the most serious defection from the ruling party since 2000, when the Islamist Hassan Al Turabi, a leading figure behind the 1989 coup that brought Bashir to power, broke away and formed the opposition Popular Congress.
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