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| Africa Horn |
| Sudan election to start on time despite protest |
| 2010-04-04 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Sudan's elections commission on Saturday said the first multi-party polls would go ahead on time, dashing an opposition party's demands for a four-week delay to address complaints of irregularities in the process. The main candidates for the presidential elections, apart from the opposition Umma party leader, withdrew from the race this week, saying the vote was already "rigged" for incumbent President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to win. Umma party head Sadeq al-Mahdi, Sudan's last democratically elected leader, listed eight demands including a four-week delay to be agreed to before April 6, or his party would boycott all parts of the presidential, legislative and gubernatorial votes. "The National Elections Commission (NEC) is working to have the elections on the dates we specified on April 11, 12, 13," deputy head of the NEC, Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah, told reporters after meeting U.S. envoy Scott Gration. "The NEC confirmed to Gration that it had completed all the necessary procedures to have the elections on the specified dates," he added. The Umma party leader said on Friday Gration had told him he would try to achieve the four-week delay. He flew into Khartoum after the opposition boycott threats. |
| Posted by:Fred |