14 Apr 2015

In SudanVoting holds amidst opposition boycott

 
Voting has held in Sudan today amidst calls for a boycott by the opposition.
The elections which are expected to be won by its war-crimes-indicted president, Omar al-Bashir, held after the main opposition called for a boycott.
BBC reports that small queues formed at polling stations, with voters saying the elections guaranteed stability.
However, the opposition and Western powers said the polls lacked credibility because of political repression.

71-year-old president, al-Bashir,  who has been in power since 1989, has been charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) with genocide over the Darfur conflict.
He has however denied the charges.
According to BBC's James Copnall's reports from Khartoum, there was a large crowd where Bashir was voting, but most of them were journalists and security personnel.
Meanwhile, Amjad Farid, spokesman for the Sudan Change Now protest group, said his wife Sandra Farouk Kodouda was detained on the eve of the polls as she went to address an anti-election rally.
The authorities, however, have not confirmed her arrest.
Also, the UK, US and Norway have said in a statement that "an environment conducive to participatory and credible elections does not exist" in Sudan.


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