Darfur rebels reject Sudan election as illegitimate

The most influential Darfuri rebel leaders reaffirmed to Radio Dabanga their boycott of the ongoing nationwide elections and labeled the voting as a fraud carried out to legitimize the incumbent president. Abdel Wahed Mohamed Ahmed al-Nur, founder and president of the Sudan Liberation Movement, said that the vote was intended to protect Omer al-Bashir and his regime. In his interview he called for the downfall of the National Congress Party, for the unity of Sudan and for its future.

The police yesterday broke up a peaceful demonstration of supporters of Abdel Wahid in Khartoum North. They were denouncing the elections and calling for a boycott. Ten of the demonstrators were sentenced to one year in prison and a few were released, according Sahafa newspaper which cited families of the prisoners. Another protest by Abdel Wahed supporters had taken place the day before, Sunday, in Khartoum Mayo.

For his part, Dr. Khalil Ibrahim, chairman of the Justice and Equality Movement, called the ongoing elections a farce, a fraud and already fixed. He said in an interview with Radio Dabanga that this can be seen from the falsity of the census and registration results. He said that JEM would not recognize the outcome of the election. The JEM leader, who was speaking from Doha, also denied that he had been expelled from Chad by President Idriss Deby. He said that JEM would not use violence to disrupt the elections but affirmed that no secret ceasefire deal had been reached.

Bahr Abu Garda, secretary-general of the umbrella rebel group called the Liberation and Justice Movement, said that he was not interested in elections today but rather is primarily concerned with solving the problem of Darfur, which is being negotiated in Doha. The negotiations there are suspended until after the elections.