Roundup: Sudan street more polarized ahead of elections

Two days ahead of Sudan's presidential and legislative elections, polarization is on rise in the capital Khartoum.

The battle is getting more heated between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) which seeks to ensure the highest voters' turnout in the polls, and the opposition forces which are intensifying their efforts to persuade the citizens to boycott the polls.

It is widely believed that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the NCP candidate, would face weak competition in the race and is likely to get re-elected.

Bashir is competing against 15 other candidates, some of them are representing small parties with no popular bases, while the rest are running as independent candidates.

Due to little rivalry, analysts believed that Bashir's ruling party would achieve a landslide victory.

"Bashir is likely to easily win the presidential elections and his party will achieve a great victory at all levels," Abdul-Rahim al-Sunni, a Sudanese political analyst, told Xinhua.

"There is no a real competitor for Bashir at the presidential level because the Sudanese street barely knows some of the other presidential candidates. There is no even a slight possibility of surprises. This is what makes the electoral process loses its momentum," he added.

However, he believed that the opposition's boycott of the elections would add some excitement to the process.

Salah Ahmed Adam, another Sudanese political analyst, told Xinhua that "Bashir is the candidate with the greatest chances to win the presidential race and his party would win most of the votes."

"The Sudanese street regards Bashir as a symbol who led the country for around 25 years and managed to overcome all the difficulties that could overthrow his rule," the analyst noted.

The presidential and legislative polls in Sudan are scheduled to begin on Monday, April 13, and will last for three days where 44 political parties are taking part amid boycott by major opposition parties.

Influential opposition parties in Sudan have been calling for the elections to be delayed, saying that they need longer time to raise funds and communicate with their supporters, but the government has refused their requests.

The government has also rejected the oppositions' call for the formation of a transitional government before the elections to resolve the deadly conflicts in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile States, which have forced thousands to flee their homes.

On Friday, the European Union (EU) announced that it would not take part in monitoring Sudan's general elections.

"The failure to initiate a genuine national dialogue one year after it was announced by the government of Sudan is a setback for the welfare of the people of Sudan," EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement.

"When dialogue is bypassed, some groups are excluded and civil and political rights are infringed, the upcoming elections cannot produce a credible result with legitimacy throughout the country," the statement added.

However, regional organizations such as the African Union, the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development in Africa and the Arab League have announced that they would monitor the polls.

In 2010, the first multi-party elections in almost 24 years were held in which the NCP, led by Bashir, made a victory. The opposition parties doubted the elections' integrity. Endit