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Sudan opposition groups hit out at Bashir re-election bid

By AFP
Sudan Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir address the National Consultative Council in Khartoum on October 21, 2014.  By Ashraf Shazly AFPFile
OCT 22, 2014 LISTEN
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir address the National Consultative Council in Khartoum on October 21, 2014. By Ashraf Shazly (AFP/File)

Khartoum (AFP) - Sudanese opposition groups sharply criticised President Omar al-Bashir's reelection bid on Wednesday, with one saying his party does "not respect democracy."

Bashir's National Congress Party said Tuesday the 70-year-old, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur, would stand for re-election in 2015.

"The NCP has not respected democracy and does not care about it," Abdelqayum Awad, secretary general of the opposition Sudanese Congress, told AFP.

Bashir took power in a 1989 Islamist-backed coup, and signed the 2005 peace agreement that ended 22 years of bloody civil war between Khartoum and the south.

The transitional constitution introduced as part of the peace deal stipulated that the president could serve only two terms.

The NCP "does not care about the transitional constitution 2005 that says in one of its articles, the president can be elected for two times only and now the two terms have finished," Awad said.

The NCP says Bashir was only transitional head of state from 2005 until being elected in 2010, so he has only served one term under the new constitution.

The Communist Party said Bashir's nomination would aggravate the situation in the conflict-battered, impoverished country.

His nomination "will complicate the Sudan crisis," party spokesman Youssef Hussein said.

Both the Communist Party and the Sudanese Congress refused to participate in a national dialogue announced by Bashir in January aimed at tackling Sudan's crises.

The government is battling rebels in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan regions, and has been facing rising violence in the western region of Darfur.

One of the main insurgent groups in Darfur, the Justice and Equality Movement, said Bashir's candidacy "confirms he is a dictator".

"I don't know how a party can nominate someone who is wanted by the ICC and is not acceptable in the region and internationally," spokesman Jibril Adam Bilal said via telephone from London.

At least 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur and two million forced to flee their homes since non-Arab rebels first rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime in 2003, the UN says.

The government puts the death toll at 10,000.

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