DUP leader rejects election results, leaves for Egypt
April 19, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Mohamed Osman Al-Mirghani today issued a strong statement calling for a holding new elections at all levels saying that the current ones “were exposed to fraud and rigging”.
Some 16 million registered voters across Sudan were asked to choose their president, legislative and local representatives. Southerners also voted for the leader of their semi-autonomous government.
Most major Northern opposition parties including the Umma Party, Sudan Communist Party, Umma Reform and Renewal Party (URRP) boycotted the elections days before they were due to start saying the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has made it impossible for the process to be held in a free and fair manner.
The Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM),the junior partner in the government of national unity (GoNU), also declined to participate in the elections in the North with limited exceptions for the same reasons.
However, the DUP and the Popular Congress Party (PCP) led by Hassan Al-Turabi declined to join the boycott of other opposition.
In his statement today, Al-Mirghani said that the DUP was aware of the difficulties and impediments facing the elections but that it believed that its participation would be a step towards democratic transformation and peaceful exchange of power.
He said that his party monitored and documented “all forms of fraud” in the elections, which prompted the DUP leadership to refrain from voting.
The DUP failed to make any gains in areas considered to be its strongholds with large populations of the Al-Khatmiya religious sect who are followers of Al-Mirghani fueling suspicions that the votes were rigged.
“The fears of the party were confirmed over the non-readiness and partiality of the National Elections Commission (NEC) and its branches in the different states…. the electoral commission is not neutral,” Al-Mirghani said.
The religious figure called for a national dialogue between all political parties to agree on the major issues such as the unity of the country ahead of the 2011 referenda in South Sudan and resolving the crisis in Sudan’s Western region of Darfur.
Shortly after Al-Mirghani issued his statements, he left for Egypt and will also head to Saudi Arabia from there. His office denied that he has gone to a voluntary exile over the electoral dispute.
The DUP chief has been in exile since the early1990’s after the coup which brought president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir to power and returned in 2008 for the funeral of his brother, the former head of state.
Sudan’s two traditional heavyweight, the Umma party and the DUP finished first and second respectively in the 1986 election but many observers believe that years of political restrictions severely weakened the popular base of both parties.
(ST)
Dinka Boy
DUP leader rejects election results, leaves for Egypt
The only thing that you opposition parties can do is to throw Omer Bashier out of Power like the way he obtain presidency otherwise he will not listen to your conversation.
Dinka Boy
DUP leader rejects election results, leaves for Egypt
NYDG,
Your blunt believed on the promise of Bashier means that you and likes have no reasoning ability for sure.
This is what you said “He has promised southern Sudanese a smooth path to referendum in 2011”
Are you sure that if Bashier is in power then he will give South Sudan afree walk away move? my God help this kind of people.
Indeed, there is not doubt that your primitive thinking of your food lovers can not hide.
Yes, this thinking just see stuffs on the cover and that is why all of you misunderstood the vision of New Sudan. Do you know the less tribe in the South with zero mentality? Naath Nuer.