Ibrahim Abboud
At first the Beja Congress was frustrated in seeking political power: it was banned in 1960, along with all other political parties, by the military junta of General Ibrahim Abboud. Once the ban was lifted in 1964, the party was able to mobilize the educated sector of the eastern Sudan and, it successfully participated in the 1965 parliamentary elections, with several of its activists winning seats to the constituent assembly. Though it was banned once again during the years of the military government of Gaafar Nimeiry (1969–84), after the popular uprising of 1985 removed Nimeiry, the Beja Congress participated in the national elections of 1986. The Congress won only one seat in that election, losing to a resurgent Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which subsequently participated in the Sadig Al-Mahdi-led coalition government of 1986–89.