Two opposition parties boycott polls in Sudan’s South Kordofan State
April 21, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – A couple of mainstream opposition parties in north Sudan have decided to boycott gubernatorial elections in the country’s central state of South Kordofan, citing objections to what they termed as the use of state resources to support the two frontrunners.
The two frontrunners in gubernatorial elections are the state’s deputy governor, Abdel Aziz Adam Al-Hilu, who is representing north Sudan sector of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the ruling party in South Sudan, and north Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party’s (NCP) incumbent candidate, Ahmed Haroun, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur region.
Both of the National Umma Party (NUP) led by Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi and the Popular Congress Party (PCP) of the detained Islamist leader Hassan Al-Turbi announced on Thursday that they would not contest in the gubernatorial elections in South Kordofan, with the PCP saying that it has decided to boycott state assembly elections as well.
“Our party has decided not to participate in the election of state governor because it has become a contest for which the ruling parties harnessed state resources,” the NUP said in a press release seen by Sudan Tribune.
The NUP, which initially fielded a candidate in the gubernatorial race before the candidate withdrew this month, warned that the climate in South Kordofan was charged and that the competing parties would not accept the results.
On the other hand, the PCP said it had decided to boycott the elections on all levels due to the “flagrant rigging” in the re-drawing of geographic constituencies and the NCP’s “shameless” use of public fund and state media in supporting the electoral campaign of its candidate Ahmed Haroun.
The secretary-general of the SPLM’s northern sector, Yasir Arman, this week criticized a visit by North Sudan’s Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha to South Kordofan where he inaugurated a number of development projects. Arman argued that by doing so the NCP had violated the election law which prohibits the use of state resources to woo support for candidates.
Concerns over the elections in South Kordofan increased when unknown militias attacked the village of El-Feid this month, killing at least 17 people and burning hundreds of houses. The SPLM accused Ahmed Haroun of mobilizing the paramilitary Popular Defense Forces to carry out the attack.
South Korodfan lie on the fault line between north and south Sudan, and is expected to produce most of north Sudan’s oil after the south, from which 75% of the country’s oil wealth is extracted, secedes in July after it voted for independence in a referendum in January.
The state is due to hold popular consultations after the elections to decide whether the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended north-south civil war in 2005, has met the aspiration of the state’s population.
(ST)