February 13, 2010 (KHARTOUM) –The presidential nominee for the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) Omer Hassan Al-Bashir has pledged to step down “peacefully” should he lose in the elections scheduled for next April.
- Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir arrives to a campaign rally at Al-Hilal Stadium in Khartoum February 13, 2010 (AFP)
Addressing thousands of the NCP supporters in Al-Hilal stadium in the twin capital city of Omdurman, Bashir vowed to conduct free and fair elections and urged other contestants to refrain from “rhetoric and racism” and reject violence during the campaign which officially started today.
“No one forced these elections on us,” Bashir said. “We want fair elections, we want clean elections.”
“They [opposition] have announced that they are in alliance to win the elections and if they can convince people to vote for them, I will hand over the rule to them peacefully” he added.
In a lengthy speech, Bashir recounted the achievements since he took power through a military coup in 1989, particularly in services and development projects and peace agreements signed throughout the country.
He spoke of the devastated economy his government inherited at the time. Gasoline oil was rationed, the army had no weapons or ammunition, people could not find bread to eat and education was a luxury of the rich, he said.
“Today in every city there is a university or higher education institute. Today in every village in Sudan there is a university graduate,” Bashir said.
The elections are being held in accordance with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the NCP and the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) which is the dominant party in the South.
This will be the first multiparty elections held in Sudan in almost quarter of a century when the Umma Party leader Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi was a prime minister before being overthrown by Bashir. Al-Mahdi is running against Bashir in the prudential elections.
There are 14,535 candidates in total, including 12 candidates for the presidency and the rest to other levels of elections for the presidency of the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) and state governors and the national parliament and state assemblies.
Bashir’s stakes are high given the arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) hanging over his head for alleged war crimes committed in Darfur. The warrant has restricted his ability to travel abroad particularly to countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute.
Hamad Al-Rayah, a Sudanese singer sang odes insulting the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo whom Khartoum accuses of being pushed by Western countries to target Bashir.
This month the appeal chamber granted Ocampo’s appeal against Pre-Trial chamber which excluded the crime of genocide from Bashir’s arrest warrant.
“Where is the ethnic cleansing? Where is the genocide?” Bashir asked, adding he would make peace in Sudan’s west after seven years of rebellion with anyone who was willing to sign.
The Sudanese president reiterated his position that he would respect the choice Southern Sudanese would make in the 2011 referendum for self determination.
“If our brothers in the south…decide on independence, we will be their closest neighbors and…we will stand by their side,” Bashir said.
Most analysts except a landslide vote by Southern Sudanese in favor of independence given deep rooted mistrust after more than two decades of civil war with the mainly Arab and Muslim north.
(ST)
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