Sudan ex-PM will run for president ‘only if necessary’
September 20, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Umma National Party, has made no decisions on a candidate to run in the 2010 presidential elections, its leader said in an interview.
Sudan will hold its first free presidential and parliamentary elections in 23 years in April 2010 though doubts remain on whether this deadline will be met given objections by opposition parties on what they describe as “freedom restricting laws”.
The Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) also wants the April 2008 results to be scrapped and not used in determining geographical constituencies by the electoral commission.
Al-Mahdi said that the participation of his party in the elections is contingent upon monitoring and fairness of the process as well as “free environment”.
The former Prime Minister said that opposition parties did not discuss nominating one candidate for presidency namely Salva Kiir, as was reported in the media suggesting that the idea is not possible.
Asked whether he would run for president, Al-Mahdi hinted his lack of enthusiasm for the idea.
“I have many other projects and there will be big difficulty in running for president unless there is absolute need and no alternative,” he said.
In 1966, at the age of 31, Al-Mahdi became Sudan’s youngest elected Prime Minister.
Elected as Prime Minister of Sudan in 1986, his government was overthrown by a military coup d’état led by the Brigadier Omer Hassan Al-Bashir on June 30, 1989.
(ST)