Opposition to reject results

Sudan opposition to reject results




April 17 2010
Khartoum - The two main Sudanese opposition parties that challenged President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress in this week's landmark multi-party elections said on Saturday they would reject the results.

Hatem al-Sirr of the opposition heavyweight Democratic Unionist Party, who ran against Beshir in the presidential race, said he would not recognise the results of the election that is likely to see Bashir re-elected.

"I reject the results of the elections and I will not recognise them," said Sirr.

"The result does not reflect real participation."
Earlier Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi described the country's first competitive elections in 24 years as "fraudulent," and said his party would not join the next government.

"The voting and the counting process are fraudulent. We will take the matter to court and if the judge does not rule in our favour, we may have to use other alternatives than the ballot boxes," said Turabi, once a mentor to Bashir and now one of his fiercest critics.

"We are still gathering information in several regions of the country before talking with our local officials and other parties," Turabi told reporters at the headquarters of his Popular Congress Party (PCP).

The Sunday-Thursday vote was marred by a boycott of a significant part of the opposition and logistical problems. The results are expected on Tuesday.

Bashir's NCP this week said that if elected, it would invite the opposition to join a future government.

"But our party has decided not to take any seats in parliament (national or regional), nor to participate in any government, even if we have candidates that are elected," Turabi said.

Turabi did not run in the country's presidential race himself. The PCP was instead represented by Abdallah Deng Nial, a Muslim from the mainly Christian south.

Earlier on Saturday, international election observers from the Carter Centre and the European Union said the past week's presidential, legislative and local elections in Sudan failed to meet international standards. - AFP