High alert as Sudan opposition now vows to sabotage elections
A young supporter holds a poster during a campaign meeting of the incumbent president and candidate of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) for Sudan’s presidency Omar al-Bashir (portrait) in the capital Khartoum, ahead of the April 13 polls. PHOTO | ASHRAF SHAZLY |
What you need to know:
- Groups have vowed to escalate the campaign to boycott ballot.
- Police have warned that any attempt to sabotage election process will be crushed.
KHARTOUM
Sudan has warned that it will not tolerate any attempt to sabotage the election set for next week.
Defence Minister Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein has said the army “will not allow rebels to impede elections”.
The warning came after opposition parties, rebels, youth movements and civil society organizations announced a joint stance against the elections.
The groups have vowed to escalate the campaign to boycott the April 13 elections and prevent the extension of President Omar al-Bashir’s reign.
Mr Fadul Allah Burma Nassir, the secretary General of the National Umma Party (NUP) headed by the former Prime Minister Alsadigalmahdi told the Nation that they will mass all their supporters to stop the elections.
“It’s impossible to conduct this election while the war is continuing and freedom is obstructed in the country,” Mr Nassir said.
For his part the spokesman of the Sudanese oppositions’ umbrella of the National consensus forces (NSF) Siddig Youssef stressed that the Sudanese people will put an end to the election and they will isolate it.
“We will mobilise our people to boycott this election, we will use all our efforts to resist the extension of the president’s term” he emphasised.
The opposition had announced on Monday that they will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the April 6, 1985 popular uprising which ended the rule of General Jafar Numeiri, in the NUP headquarters in Khartoum on Monday evening.
However, eyewitnesses confirmed heavy police and security forces have been deployed around the NUP headquarters in the Sudan twin capital of Umdurman.
Meanwhile, Sudan’s army spokesman Colonel Al-Sawarmy Khaled Saad today denied claims by rebels that they captured a lorry carrying ballot boxes to polling stations for the elections in Sudan’s South Kordofan region.
