SUDAN: President Omar Hassan al Bashir campaigns for presidential elections in his home town of Shandi north of Khartoum

Record ID: 346080

  • Title: SUDAN: President Omar Hassan al Bashir campaigns for presidential elections in his home town of Shandi north of Khartoum
  • Date: 8th April 2010
  • Summary: MORE OF SUPPORTERS CHEERING BASHIR DANCING TRADITIONAL SUDANESE DANCE PEOPLE DANCING AND CHANTING BASHIR LEAVING
  • Embargoed: 23rd April 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sudan
  • Country: Sudan
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA66UDWT8ZD09Q28GKH9XOXM787
  • Story Text: Thousands of supporters of Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir gathered on Wednesday (April 7) to welcome him in his hometown of Shandi north of Khartoum.
    Shandi residents gathered near the town stadium to welcome al-Bashir who's ending his campaign for the presidential elections.
    They cheered enthusiastically for the incumbent president.
    Al-Bashir responded by dancing on the stage he was on.
    "Look at the people in the south, east, west and in the middle of Sudan and how they welcomed us, and after that there are some people who are talking about fraud, do we really need fraud to win the elections?... do we need fraud after all the support that we have, and we are seeing?", al-Bashir told the crowds.
    Political analysts say Bashir hopes to show he can win a competitive election to legitimise his rule and fend off an indictment against him by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges in Darfur.
    Meanwhile the European Union on Wednesday withdrew its election observers from Sudan's Darfur region, saying safety fears were hindering their work.
    The country is days away from what should be its first multi-party presidential, legislative and gubernatorial elections in 24 years, but opposition parties have said the polls in Darfur will be a farce while a seven-year conflict continues in the region.
    A further blow to the poll was the announcement on Tuesday (April 6) by South Sudan's main party would boycott elections in most states in northern Sudan, already hit by accusations of fraud less than a week ahead of voting.
    The SPLM's move will be seen as a rebuke to Bashir and will stoke tension as both sides prepare for an even more sensitive referendum on the independence of Sudan's oil-producing south, also promised under the peace deal, in January 2011.
    These presidential, legislative and gubernatorial elections are seen as central to sustaining the 2005 peace deal signed by the SPLM and Bashir's northern National Congress Party (NCP) ending more than two decades of civil war.
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