Sudanese opposition step up anti-election campaign

The mainstream Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW) and the Sudanese congress Party are calling on the Sudanese to “stand up and topple the Khartoum regime”. The displaced and refugees of Blue Nile state have announced their boycott of the election.

In a statement on Wednesday, the leader of the SLM-AW, Abdel Wahid El Nur, appealed to “all Sudanese, of all military, political, and civil sectors, to join the Oust! campaign, and stage an uprising to prevent the re-election of criminal Omar Al Bashir”.

He called for mass civil disobedience actions throughout Sudan to “free our people from dictatorship, and build a nation based on equal citizenship, and individual and collective freedoms, bring the murderers and criminals to justice in national and international courts, and write a new history of our country, without discrimination and exclusion”.

‘Personal gains’

In Sodari, North Kordofan, Ibrahim El Sheikh, the head of the Sudanese Congress Party called for a general boycott of the election.

At a symposium on Wednesday, he urged the Sudanese to stand up to prevent the re-election of “liar Al Bashir and his affiliates, who shamelessly robbed the country’s resources and used them for their personal gains”.

‘One-horse race’

Dr Bashir Adam Rahama, Foreign Relations Secretary of the Popular Congress Party (PCP), led by Dr Hassan El Turabi, described the general election, scheduled to take place between 13 and 15 April, as “a one-horse race by the ruling NCP”.

He told Radio Dabanga that his party will not participate in the election, through nomination or voting, as the outcomes are “predetermined”. “The PCP is not interested in the election anyhow”.

‘Hampering aid’

The Blue Nile displaced and refugees announced in a statement on Wednesday that they will not cast their votes nor recognise the electoral results.

They wonder how they can participate in election organised by a government that severely hampers efforts of humanitarian organisations to provide aid, while continuing their attacks on the population “aerial bombardments, shelling, and internationally prohibited chemical weapons”.

In their Declaration of the 2015 Election Boycott, the war-affected call for a broad national constitutional conference “to reach a comprehensive solution to the problem of Sudan, prosecute all offenders of justice, headed by President Al Bashir, and compensate the victims, in accordance with national and international standards”.

The statement also demanded the release of political detainees in the detention centres of the security apparatus, popularly known as “ghost houses”, and the abolition of all laws restricting freedoms and which violate international conventions on human rights, including the National Intelligence and Security Service Act and the Public Order Bill.

The Blue Nile displaced and refugees further appealed to the UN organisations to provide humanitarian assistance to the people in the Blue Nile, the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, and Darfur.