Opposition party renews boycott of Sudan 2020 elections

The Sudanese Communist Party renewed its refusal to participate in the elections of 2020.

In the beginning of May, several parties announced they would boycott the Sudan elections in 2020.

Siddig Yousef, member of the party’s central committee, told Radio Dabanga that the issue of their participation in the elections has been raised several times in the opposition party’s platforms at home and abroad. “But the party refuses in principle to participate in elections in which the result is known in advance.”

Yousef points to the fact that incumbent president Omar Al Bashir has vowed to step down in the past, however, his party the NCP insisted he continued. Al Bashir has been in power since 1989, following a military coup against a democratically elected government.

The Communist Party refused to participate in the 2010 the 2015 elections, and also refuses to participate in 2020.

“Last week the security authorities blocked our party from holding a symposium at El Deim district in Kharotum, without an explanation for it. So how could the party address its followers’ base and all Sudanese people?”

This experience has “proved that the regime does not tolerate any opposition or different opinions”.

Symposium

Members of the security service detained activists who publicly announced a symposium that was scheduled for May 11 at the headquarters of the Sudanese Communist Party in El Gedaref, to discuss the economic crisis in El Gedaref state and beyond. In Sudan, fuel shortages across most parts of the country worsened towards the end of March and the beginning of April.