SPLM leadership says Arman had asked to quit

Sudantribune 3rd April 2010



Quote: April 3, 2010 (JUBA) – The withdrawn SPLM presidential candidate, Yasir Saeed Arman, who was nominated by the party in February to contest against the incumbent President of the Republic, Omer Hassan al-Bashir, had voluntarily asked to quit the presidential elections scheduled for 11th April, revealed the Deputy Chairperson of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). Responding to a question posed on why the party’s leadership had decided to withdraw its presidential candidate at this stage, Dr. Riek Machar said the decision to pull out Arman was initially advocated by the presidential candidate himself. “He [Arman] advocated for his withdrawal. We had tried to convince him for weeks not to do that, but he insisted that he wanted it done that way,” Machar said. On Thursday, Arman said the presidential election was aimed at deflecting the International Criminal Court (ICC), which a year ago issued an arrest warrant for Bashir for alleged war crimes in Darfur. "The elections for president is made for one person, it is not made for a democratic process or for the Sudanese people, it was only made to save General Bashir from the ICC," Arman said. Arman was serving the party as Deputy Secretary General for Northern Sector when the SPLM’s highest organ, the Political Bureau, nominated him in February this year to be its flag bearer in the match to the national presidential palace in Khartoum. He had conducted several campaigns in both Southern and Northern Sudan states, including in the troubled region of Darfur. The SPLM after conducting an extraordinary meeting of the Political Bureau on Wednesday in the Southern Sudan’s capital, Juba, officially announced its decision to partially boycott the elections for the country’s presidency by withdrawing its presidential candidate and boycotting elections in Darfur region, citing irregularities in the electoral process as the basis for the decision. The party however said it would continue with the process to participate in the elections at all the other levels of executive and parliamentary contests. Prior to the decision for partial boycott of the elections, the SPLM had conducted internal consultations on whether or not to boycott the elections at all levels, or at least in the North, and with some of its officials calling for a postponement while others wanted the party’s participation at all levels and as scheduled for April. The party’s ruling partner in the Government of National Unity, the National Congress Party (NCP) responded by threatening to cancel the conduct of referendum in the South next year if the SPLM would agree to the boycott of the elections. Leading the SPLM’s intervening team in Khartoum, Machar also had dialogue with some of the main opposition parties’ leaders who requested the Presidency for the postponement of the elections at all levels until November and tried to seek a consensus. Many of the main opposition parties have on Thursday announced the boycott of the elections at all levels. Bashir’s NCP has welcomed the decision by the SPLM to participate in the elections as scheduled to take place nine days from now despite the withdrawal of the presidential candidate and boycott in Darfur. SPLM was aiming to capture power in Khartoum through the presidential polls which would see it taking over the presidential palace that would effect change as an institutional vehicle for realization of democratic transformation and the vision of New Sudan in the country. Arman’s withdrawal from the race has come as a surprise to many supporters of the party across the country, prompting some to blame the Political Bureau for allegedly forcing him to step down. Machar however said the withdrawal of the party’s flag bearer would give no legitimacy to the incumbent President, Al-Bashir.

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