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Sudan president says opposition unable to foil coming general elections

Xinhua, February 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Saturday reiterated the inability of the opposition to foil the coming general elections, slated for April this year.

"The opposition does not have popular support to persuade the people to boycott the elections. The opposition cannot prevent the people from exercising their electoral right," said al-Bashir when addressing a people's gathering in Gedarif town Saturday, some 412 km southeast of the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

The presidential and legislative polls are scheduled for early April, but some Sudanese political opposition parties previously demanded that the elections be postponed and a transitional government be formed to resolve what they said a crisis in the country.

Recently some Sudanese opposition forces launched a campaign under the motto "leave" to persuade the citizens to boycott the coming elections.

Parallelly, Al-Bashir, presidential candidate of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), vowed to continue the comprehensive development program in all fields.

"We will focus in the coming period on transforming the motto of 'Sudan is World Food Basket' into a living reality," President al-Bashir noted.

He added that the coming parliament, to be elected, would be tasked with setting up a permanent constitution for Sudan, pointing out that the constitution would be based on the Islamic Sharia and that there would be no room for "secularism."

Campaigning for Sudan's presidential and legislative polls kicked off on Feb. 24 with the participation of 44 political parties and 16 presidential candidates.

In 2010, the first multi-party elections in almost 24 years were held in Sudan, in which the ruling NCP, led by Omar al-Bashir, made a victory.

April's elections, which will be monitored by a number of Sudanese and foreign organizations, will be the ninth of its kind in the country. Endit