Sudan’s heavyweight northern parties name presidential nominees

January 24, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The two largest Northern opposition parties formally announced their nominations for the presidential elections to run against President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir in April and a handful of other rival candidates from smaller parties.

The Umma National Party has announced today that it is in the process of filing the nomination form for the party’s leader Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi who was also the last democratically elected prime minister in 1986 before being overthrown three years later in a bloodless coup.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has also nominated its spokesperson Hatem Al-Sir ending speculations on endorsing Bashir as some reports have mentioned. This month the official Egyptian Middle East News Agency (MENA) had quoted DUP sources as saying that the party leader Mohamed Osman Al-Mirghani intends to endorse president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir for presidency.

The Umma party Secretary General Sideeg Ismail met today with the National Elections Committee (NEC) chief Abel Alier and told Sudan’s official news agency, SUNA, that he wanted to review the progress of its work and ensure fair and free elections.

Ismail said he is confident of the integrity of the NEC saying the Umma Party hopes to see this continue throughout the elections.

In a related development the former head of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Kamil Idris, said in a press conference that he will also run independently for president in the elections.

Idris, who stepped down from WIPO following investigations into falsifying his date of birth — making himself seem nine years older when he joined the agency 25 years ago — said he wants to improve the image of Sudan and reverse the deteriorating situation in the country in all aspects whether political or economic.

The DUP nominee said that the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) is the biggest threat to the country’s unity and thus his agenda is to get rid of it and work on democratic transformation, unity, Darfur peace, fighting corruption and improving living conditions.

(ST)