Elections boycott possible with SPLM approval: Sudan PCP

March 26, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese opposition parties may consider boycotting the April elections on the condition that the junior partner in the government of national unity would take the lead on this, a senior official at the Popular Congress Party (PCP) headed by Hassan Al-Turabi said today.

Last week 17 opposition parties sent a memo to the Sudanese presidency requesting that April elections be postponed until next November in order to allow for major reforms in a number of laws primarily relating national security and media.

However, the PCP and Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) ruling the South were not among the signatories. Turabi’s party said it want to run in the elections despite the flaws. The SPLM may possibly boycott elections in the North but run in the South, sources say.

“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 memo said.

The PCP Secretary General Kamal Omer told the independent Al-Sahafa daily that should the SPLM boycott the polls then other parties will follow suit.

“The refusal by the SPLM to participate strips the elections from its legitimacy and afterwards the ruling National Congress Party forced to listen to other political powers to reconsider the electoral process and guarantee transparent elections ” Omer said.

On Saturday the opposition parties will hold a summit to deliberate on the current climate and decide whether they would boycott the elections or no. The presidency meeting that had the opposition memo on its agenda was rescheduled to next Tuesday because of Second Vice President Ali Osman Taha sudden trip to Malaysia.

The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir in recent days has toughened his stance against delaying elections accusing opposition parties of failing to get the popular support and hence requesting a postponement.

The National Elections Commission (NEC) came under fire from opposition parties which accused the body of bias in favor of the ruling NCP. A row has erupted when it was revealed that the NEC decided to print the ballots for executive posts inside Sudan at a government owned print-house rather than Slovenia as it was originally contracted.

Furthermore, VP Taha and NEC chairman Abel Alier sought to use the Northern army to transport ballots in the South, something SPLM chairman Salva Kiir rejected.

Regional countries such as Egypt and Eritrea have expressed opinions in favor of postponement but the US special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon want to adhere to the timetable.

Sudan is set to stage its first multi-party elections in 24 years from April 11 to 13 as part of a 2005 peace agreement that ended a decades-old civil war between north and south.

(ST)