Liberal Party (Sudan)
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Liberal Party
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|---|---|
| President | Benjamin Lwoki |
| Chairperson | Stanislaus Paysama |
| Founded | 1952 |
| Dissolved | November 1958 |
| Ideology |
Liberalism Southern autonomy |
The Liberal Party, at first called the Southern Party and later the Southern Liberal Party, was formed in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan before the Sudan became independent in January 1956. Until the military coup of November 1958 the Liberals were one of the main parties representing the Southern Sudan constituencies in parliament.
The Southern Sudanese Political Movement was founded in 1951 by Stanislaus Paysama, Abdel Rahman Sule and Buth Diu. In 1952 it changed its name to the Southern Party. As of 1953 the party leaders were Benjamin Lwoki, Chairman, Stanslaus Paysama, Vice Chairman, Buth Diu, Secretary General and Abdel Rahman Sule, Patron of the party. The objectives were to work for complete independence of Sudan, with special treatment for the south. The party was officially registered in 1953. At first it had widespread support from the southern intelligentsia and from the bulk of the people in the south of Sudan.
In the November 1953 national elections, most candidates in the south ran on the Southern Party platform, some were independent and five ran on the National Unionist Party (NUP) platform. Nine candidates were elected for the Southern Party, supported by three independent candidates. Most of the newly elected southern MPs traveled on the same boat to Khartoum, and agreed to come together under one banner. This was only a loose alliance, with constant disputes about leadership and policy.
After the 1953 elections the main political struggle was over appointments to the administration of the independent Sudan. The Southern Party was critical of the way the Sudanization program for appointing senior public servants was managed, and was deeply disappointed when only six southerners were selected with the remainder of the 800 posts going to northerners. The Sudanization commission, staffed entirely by northerners, said they could not find southerners with sufficient education and experience. An unstated factor was that they were not fluent in Arabic.
The party adopted the name of "Liberal Party" in 1954. The new name was meant to remove fears that the party stood for southern secession. However, the northerners continued to call it the "Southern Liberal Party". Later the party adopted the name of "Southern Liberal Party". The party convened a meeting in Juba in October 1954 where the injustices of the Public Service Commission were discussed at length. The attendees resolved unanimously that the best solution for the south was Federation, and called on southerners to prepare for sacrifices in meeting this goal.Benjamin Lwoki was president of the party in this period. Faced with insistence that the language of Sudan would be Arabic, taught throughout the country, in a 1954 telegram to Harold Macmillan he refused to support a declaration of independence.
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