VP Taha abruptly flies to Malaysia, Thursday’s presidency meeting rescheduled
March 24, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese 2nd Vice president Ali Osman Taha flew today to Malaysia “on a short mission”, Sudan state media reported.
The meeting was supposed to discuss the memo by the opposition parties that demanded a postponement to Sudan’s April elections to next November. Kiir has pushed the demand into the agenda of the summit.
The 17 opposition parties that were signatories to this letter gave the presidency a week to positively respond else they will meet and decide the next step.
“The Political Forces will then hold a joint meeting with the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement, no later than a week from the date of submitting its memorandum to the Presidency. The purpose of the meeting will be to study the response of the SPLM and announce its final decision based on the unanimity of the decision by the political parties” the memo reads.
“In the event that the NCP refuses the postponement of elections…….the Political forces will meet to consider: (i) withdrawing their confidence from the National Election Commission; (ii) undertake a decisive stance as regards conducting partial elections in April that are distorted and that lack the minimum fundamental requirements for conducing them freely and fairly. Such a stance will be considered by the Political Forces so as not to participate in the falsification of the will of the Sudanese people and to distance themselves from threats to the stability of Sudan structure by a continuation of the war in Darfur and a return to war in south Sudan”.
The parties said that “the political and legal environment in the country are not conducive to conducting free and fair elections”. They also cited population census errors and recent directive by the electoral board to delay polls in South Kordofan.
However, Bashir and the ruling party officials as well as the NEC have so far rejected any postponement talk. The Sudanese president also threatened to expel any foreign observers that demand a delay to the polls.
(ST)
Gatwech
VP Taha abruptly flies to Malaysia, Thursday’s presidency meeting rescheduled
Taha’s “abrupt” fly to Malasia is a tactical dodging of the Presidency meeting.
NCP is desperate to use the fake and pre-rigged elections as a bargaining chip in the face of ICC. They don’t want to postpone it because they want legitimacy in the name of beating powerful parties such as SPLM, UMMA of Sadiq Al-Mahdi and PCP of Dr. Turabi during the elections.
Tuesday is too far for the Presidency meeting since the elections are too near. A decision is needed sooner on the fate of this fake election.