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Sudan's Election Commission approves 15 presidential candidates

Xinhua, January 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Sudan's National Elections Commission (NEC) on Tuesday said it has approved 15 candidates for the presidential elections slated in April this year.

"The commission has approved 15 out of 18 candidates for the presidential elections, six of them represent political parties and the rest are independent candidates. Requests of three candidates were rejected," Mukhtar Al-Asam, NEC Chairman, said at a press conference here Tuesday.

He said the NEC has published the candidates' lists of the different electoral levels marking the beginning of accepting objections against the candidates.

Meanwhile, Al-Asam expected the elections to be postponed at nine constituencies due to security situations, pointing out that most of those constituencies are in the troubled regions of Darfur and South Kordofan.

He added that the commission rejected conditions set by some foreign trends, including Carter Center, to fund the electoral process.

He said those trends asked to be allowed to move in all parts of the country, meet the opposition parties and make sure that every party is willing to take part in the elections.

"We rejected this because they wanted to give dictations, which is unacceptable and touches the dignity of Sudan," noted Al-Asam.

Sudan is scheduled to conduct presidential and legislative polls in early April 2015. However, some Sudanese political opposition parties have previously demanded that the elections be postponed and a transitional government be formed to resolve what they said a crisis in the country.

In 2010, the first multi-party elections in almost 24 years were held in Sudan where the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), led by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, made a victory. Endit