Warrant for the presidency

Sudanese elections as a challenge for the US and the UN

Sudan will continue voting in its general elections today. It started yesterday and will only end tomorrow. More than 16 million voters in the African country of 40 million will come to the ballot boxes. These are the first multi-party elections in Sudan in 24 years. They became possible after the central government and the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army, which was in conflict with it, signed an agreement to resolve the situation in 2005. The war for the independence of southern Sudan lasted about 20 years and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The peace treaty gave the area six years of autonomy and ordered an independence referendum there in 2011. Another source of tension in Sudan remains the explosive situation in the western province of Darfur on the border with Chad, which has become the scene of an interethnic war.

The head of the International Committee of the Federation Council, Mikhail Margelov, appointed in December 2008 as the special representative of the Russian President for Sudan, has already expressed hope that the elections will help maintain the “fragile dynamics of a peaceful settlement in Darfur and Sudan as a whole.”

The main contender for the presidency is the leader of the ruling National Congress party, 66-year-old Omar al-Bashir, who has held it since 1993. This is due not only to his popularity, but also to the refusal of the leading opposition forces to nominate their candidates. Yasser Arman, representing the powerful southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement, and Sadiq al-Mahdi, leader of the Al-Umma party, withdrew their candidacies, saying the elections would still not be “fair.” The incumbent, dressed in a traditional white robe and turban, voted yesterday in the capital Khartoum. He showed the audience his index finger marked with special ink and exclaimed “Allahu Akbar”!

Western countries consider Omar al-Bashir an odious leader. In March 2009, the International Court of Justice issued an arrest warrant for him on charges of war crimes in Darfur. True, not all countries supported this step. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that this “could destabilize the situation in Sudan and, of course, will not contribute to a settlement.”

In addition to the president, the people of Sudan also elect 450 deputies of the National Assembly, the head of the regional government of the south of the country and deputies of regional parliaments. Women take an active part in the election campaign. A quota of 25% in the country's parliament has been allocated for them, and more than 320 women are competing for these seats. One representative of the fairer sex even risked competing for the presidency.

Residents of South Sudan received an additional bulletin. They vote for the candidacy of the head of their autonomy. The main contender for this post is the head of the regional government, Salva Kiir.

The elections are monitored by about 20 thousand observers, including 340 foreign representatives. Among them are more than 40 diplomats from the United States, a country that is Omar al-Bashir's main critic. Representatives of the Central Election Commission and the Federation Council work on behalf of Russia in Khartoum. The first results are expected on April 18.

Boris KAYMAKOV, Ivan SOLOVIEV