Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to
ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
-- in power since a 1989 coup -- will stand for re-election in 2015 after being retained Tuesday as leader of the ruling National Congress Party, a top aide said.
Bashir, the only sitting head of state wanted by the
International Criminal Court... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
(ICC), was re-elected as both leader and presidential candidate of the NCP at a party convention, said his chief assistant, Ibrahim Ghandour.
The 70-year-old career soldier took power in an Islamist-backed coup, and there had been doubts about whether he would run again in the controversial election, slated for April.
In a March interview, Ghandour said Bashir "declared many times that he's not willing to" stand again but that the final decision was with the party.
Two knee operations over the summer also raised worries over his health.
But Bashir's name was put on the party's shortlist of five candidates and his tally in Tuesday's vote was enough to rule out further voting, Ghandour said.
The president garnered 266 out of the 396 votes cast, Ghandour said, with the remainder of the 522 advisory council members choosing not to take part.
The other four nominees were all senior NCP officials seen as close to Bashir: Ghandour himself, senior member Nafie Ali Nafie, ex-vice president Ali Osman Taha and First Vice President Bakri Hassan Saleh.
Calls for 'transitional' government
The 2015 elections for the presidency, national and state parliaments will be only the second since the 1989 coup, and opposition parties have expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
s over them.
They have said the elections must come under the national dialogue announced by Bashir in January to try to resolve Sudan's multiple crises.
Reform Now, a leading opposition party, called in August for a transitional administration to be put in place as part of the dialogue and a discussion about the 2015 ballot.
Bashir is wanted by the ICC on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
At least 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur and two million forced to flee their homes since non-Arab rebels first rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime in 2003, the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
says.
The government puts the corpse count at 10,000.
Rebels are also currently battling the government in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions.
Bashir also oversaw South Sudan's split from the north, under a peace deal that ended a 22-year civil war.
The land-locked South left with most of the formerly united country's 470,000 barrels per day of oil production. Pipelines and the Red Sea export terminal remain in Sudan, but the loss of oil revenues hit the north's economy badly.