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.
was reelected on Monday with 94.5 percent of the vote in polls he had been widely expected to win, the National Electoral Commission said.
I was wondering how that was gonna turn out.
"The number of votes obtained by candidate Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir of the National Congress Party was 5,252,478, or 94.5 percent" of ballots cast, NEC chief Mokhtar al-Asam said at a news conference in Khartoum.
Bashir -- wanted by the
International Criminal Court... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
for war crimes -- had faced just 13 little-known challengers for the presidency, and the mainstream opposition boycotted the vote.
His closest competitor, Fadl el-Sayed Shuiab of the small Federal Truth Party, won "79,665 votes, or 1.43 percent," Asam said.
Not to worry. 'Truth' ends last here as well and at nearly the same percentage.
Polling stations had been quiet during the vote, despite a nationwide one-day extension, and the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
's Election Observer Mission said there had been a "generally low turnout of voters throughout".
Asam said turnout was 46.4 percent across the four days of polling, in which representatives of the national and state parliaments were also chosen.
The United States, Britannia and Norway slammed Sudan last week, saying "failed to create a free, fair and conducive elections environment".