Sudan’s Supreme Court approves general elections results

May 17, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s High Court approved results of the presidential and parliamentary elections held last April dismissing 122 out of 126 challenges submitted by political parties and presidential candidates.

The deputy chief-justice, Mahgoub al-Amin al-Faki, said in a press conference on Sunday the court received 3 challenges regarding the presidential elections and 123 challenges pertaining to regional and national geographical constituencies.

He pointed the court accepted the challenge submitted by the Liberation and Justice Party (LJP) against results of the regional constituency number 16 in Zalingei in South Darfur state, saying it declared the candidate Hamid Salim Tika as winner in this constituency.

Al-Faki further said the court accepted the challenge submitted by the member of the National Liberation and Justice Party (NLJP),Halima Omer Zaroug, against the result of the regional constituency number 22 in Central Darfur state, noting that Zaroug has been declared winner instead of the candidate from the National Reform Party (NRP), Ibrahim Mohamed Hamid.

According to the deputy chief-justice, the high court also accepted the challenge submitted by al-Hadi Abdel-Rahim Mohamed al-Hassan against result of the regional constituency number 18 in the Gazira state, saying it decided to cancel the result and conduct election later on.

The high court asked the National Elections Commission (NEC) to announce the final elections results on the bases of those decisions.

Sudan’s president Omer Hassan al-Bashir won re-election with 94% of the vote, extending his nearly three-decade rule for another five years.

The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) won 323 of the 426 seats in the National Assembly followed by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) led by Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani who won 25 seats.

Independent candidates won 19 seats while the DUP led by Jalal al-Digair came forth by 15 seats.

The opposition boycotted the election, citing a widespread crackdown on civil society and the media, which they say created an impossible environment to fairly contest Bashir’s presidency.

The new parliament would start early June while Bashir will take the oath of office for a third term on 2 June 2015.

(ST)