* President Bashir says to step down in 2015
* Wanted Bashir trying to appease youth
* Reformists grow impatient within ruling party
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Sudan's leaders have offered tentative concessions as pressure from within the ruling party and possible contagion from uprisings in the region rises, but reformists will only be silenced with action not empty promises.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is maybe in an even more tricky position than his neighbours. As the only sitting head of state wanted by the International Criminal Court, for war crimes and genocide in Darfur, he has few places to go.
His decision this week to announce he would not stand in the presidential election due in 2015 [ID:nMCD125645] could be a calculated move to ensure his party structure remains in power, ensuring he can step down and remain in the safety of Sudan's borders, far from the reach of the ICC.
But a niggling fear his own party might hand him over to smooth international relations is what some say is holding him back from resigning sooner rather than four years later.
"If he stepped down that's not quite enough to secure him ... because some of his leaders may be pragmatic and say it's better to look after the interests of the country instead of one person," said Osman Merghani, editor-in-chief of the independent al-Tayyar paper.
Officials from the ruling National Congress Party have been quick to say the proposed concessions including an anti-corruption commission and jobs for graduates are not a reaction to the uprisings which toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia and could end Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's rule.
But Bashir first made the proposals and a possible 60-year retirement age for government and party officials to the youth sector of his own party -- designed to appease exactly the group of people who have been the backbone of protests elsewhere.
It could also expose the ageing and stagnant leadership of the opposition parties, many of whom have had the same heads for decades -- mostly over the age of 70.
"SAVVY"
"Positioning the NCP as the most responsive party to popular sentiment is savvy," said one Western researcher on Sudan who declined to be named. "It also suggests that change in Sudan is perhaps more likely to come from within the ruling elite rather than from any external challenger."
But NCP promises of reform have been made and broken before. The difference is now the pressure on the ruling party which took power in a bloodless 1989 coup is also coming from within.
Sudan is at a crossroads with the split of the oil-producing south in July, economic crisis beginning to bite and the waves of rage against corrupt and repressive governments enveloping the region.
And analysts said the winds of change were increasing support for the reformist wing within Bashir's party.
"The latest developments in the Arab world will strengthen this challenge and perhaps make it a mainstream. If this happens it will be a good thing," said Mahjoub Mohamed Saleh, editor-in- chief of the independent al-Ayaam daily.
NCP reformists in a rare show of dissent have begun to publicly voice their concerns. They realise that if change does not happen now in Sudan suffering after decades of multiple civil wars, street protests could erupt demanding a change of the entire system -- including them.
"Three quarters of the wealth of the brothers of the president should be passed onto the Sudanese people," Mekki ElMograbi, editor-in-chief of the pro-NCP daily The Democrat wrote in an address to Bashir this week.
What is clear is that the minor reforms so far proposed only touch the surface of what even the NCP reformists want let alone popular sentiment in the country.
Police violently dispersed dozens of small anti-government protests throughout the north this year and dozens of opposition party officials and activists remain in jail without charge.
While the movement failed to garner wide support before fizzling, many say if the economic crisis continues to bite, more could erupt.
Real reform must happen now, said Merghani.
"People are not looking now for promises they are looking for action," he said. "They can no longer just try to buy time by trying to make minor changes in their ruling system."
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