SUDAN-ELECTION/CAMPAIGN Sudan's Bashir on campaign trail as opposition presses on with boycott

Record ID: 347319

  • Title: SUDAN-ELECTION/CAMPAIGN Sudan's Bashir on campaign trail as opposition presses on with boycott
  • Date: 8th March 2015
  • Summary: GEZIRA, SUDAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SUDANESE PRESIDENT OMAR HASSAN AL-BASHIR ON STAGE AT A RALLY
  • Embargoed: 23rd March 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sudan
  • Country: Sudan
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9EIE2KVQADGMBL611U54I99OR
  • Story Text: Sudan's president Omar Hassan al-Bashir kicked off his re-election campaign on Thursday (March 5) ahead of polls expected to start on April 2.
    On the same day, French newspaper Le Monde published an interview in which the 71-year-old president, who has ruled Sudan for 25 years, said he will stand aside in 2020 if he is elected one more time.
    Bashir had previously signalled he would step down this year, but his National Congress Party chose him as its candidate in October, all but assuring his success against a fractured and weakened opposition.
    Bashir addressed a crowd of supporters at a rally in Gezira state, central Sudan saying the people would decide whether he stays in power.
    "We salute all the political forces that have accepted national dialogue for the sake of the nation. We thank those political forces and we still say to the opposition - those hiding inside Sudan and those in the Diaspora who want me to step down, I will go away when the Sudanese people say so. If the Sudanese people do not vote for me I will go," he said.
    Bashir, who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1989, told Le Monde he had made numerous gestures to the opposition and that a process of reconciliation launched a year ago was about to conclude.
    Bashir pledged last year to redraw the constitution, bring opposition parties into government, and launch a national dialogue, but no visible progress has been made.
    Opposition figures have said the continued rule of Bashir -- facing an ICC arrest warrant for charges of genocide and war crimes that has prevented him travelling to many countries -- has exacerbated Sudan's isolation from global financial and political institutions.
    They also accuse Bashir of continuing to jail dissidents, censoring the media and closing newspapers, making a mockery of his stated commitment to a national dialogue.
    Several opposition parties have said they will boycott the April polls claiming that a lack of democracy will not allow a fair vote. The opposition also boycotted the last presidential election in April 2010, citing fraud.
    Sudan's Communist Party, which was a major force in the country after it gained independence from Britain in 1956, is one of them.
    "These elections will fail and the boycott campaign is expected to succeed because most political forces in Sudan are participating in this campaign. People do not want a repeat of the 2010 elections, when parties decided to boycott without support from the public. This campaign will prove that millions of Sudanese are boycotting the polls and this will reveal the rigging that happens during elections," said party spokesperson, Yusuf Hussein.
    "There is a crisis in the country, continuous war, laws restricting freedoms, arrest of opposition figures. The people are boycotting this election. They will boycott registration," he added.
    The opposition has also cast doubt on the independence of the National Elections Commission, which has been carrying out voter registration since last year.
    The number of eligible voters at the last presidential elections was 19.8 million, according to official figures. About 10 million people, or just over half, cast their ballots then.
    "It is clear that positions are varied. The ruling National Congress Party is insisting that the elections should take place as scheduled while the national dialogue participating parties and the opposition are calling for postponement of the process because there are reservations about the National Election Commission and it is considered to be biased," said journalist and political analyst, Ayman Singrab.
    This time, the economy will play a much bigger role for those who choose to go to the polls. Sudan's economy has been in free fall since the oil-rich southern third of the country seceded in 2011 and the government has slashed services and subsidies as its foreign exchange reserves shrink.
    But some Sudanese feel they cannot trust alternatives to Bashir, who has proven himself a political survivor, fighting off coup attempts, civil wars, and international isolation.
    "The election can play an important role in the stability of the country because it contributes to the unification of public opinion and it is the right of the Sudanese people to express their view through the ballot boxes as one of the tools of good governance," said Abbas Ali, a resident of Khartoum.
    Bashir, a former military commander who rules in an alliance with hardline Islamists, has contested three elections since coming to power.
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