‘Sudan’s 2015 elections a nightmare’: El Mahdi

El Sadig El Mahdi, president of the National Umma Party (NUP), warned that if the general elections will be held in 2015 under the present circumstances, it will be a nightmare. In his Eid El Fitr speech at the Imam Abdel Rahman El Mahdi mosque in Wad Nubawi, Omdurman, the NUP leader stressed that a continuation of the current regime means a continuation of the same policies and the same people, who have ruled the country for the past quarter of a century. Holding elections under the present circumstances would mean the continuation of “an unprecedented political and ideological polarisation, a hard economic situation, deteriorating living conditions, a chaotic security situation, and growing regional and international isolation.” “Such elections will be an absurd move that will deepen Sudan’s existing crises. The government does not intend to hold general elections with the purpose of a peaceful rotation of power, but is thinking in the same way all other tyrants in the Middle East.” El Mahdi said that the solution could be the toppling of the regime, but warned for a repetition of what happened in Syria. The alternative would be that all political, civil, and armed forces agree on a new regime that will concentrate on the realisation of a just and comprehensive peace, and a “complete transition to democracy”. File photo: Imam El Sadig El Mahdi among his followers in Wad Nubawi, Omdurman (Namaa Faisal) Related:Umma Party and SPLM-N intensify cooperation in Sudan (12 June 2014)Umma official urges citizens to join Sudan Revolutionary Front (16 March 2014)