Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Sudan

Sudan elects wanted Bashir as president

26 Apr 2010 14:29:21 GMT

Source: Reuters

* Bashir takes 68 pct of vote, declares "moral victory"

* Kiir stays south Sudan president with 92 pct of vote

* Boycotting opposition dismiss win as "farce"

By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM, April 26 (Reuters) - President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has won Sudan's first open elections in 24 years in a result that confirms in office the only sitting head of state wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Bashir won 68 percent of the presidential vote, while Salva Kiir retained his job as the president of Sudan's semi- autonomous south, with 92.99 percent of the vote in that race, Sudan's National Elections Commission announced.

After a vote that outside observers said fell short of global standards, Bashir is expected to form a coalition with Kiir as the country heads toward a 2011 referendum on whether south Sudan should split off and become Africa's newest state.

Bashir had hoped a win in legitimate polls would help him defy the ICC warrant, in which he is accused of ordering a campaign of murder, torture and rape in Sudan's Darfur region.

But the polls intended to mark Sudan's transformation into a democratic state were marred by widespread charges of fraud, including from Kiir's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), suggesting the new ruling coalition will be a fragile one.

Bashir appeared on state television soon after the result saying the Sudanese people "have achieved this moral victory before the eyes of the world in a civilised, high class and shared manner".

He added that Sudan would hold the southern referendum "as scheduled". Many southerners fear Bashir will try to disrupt the plebiscite in a bid to keep control of the south's oil.

Bashir's victory was dismissed by opposition parties which earlier boycotted the vote citing fraud and the conflict in Darfur.

"They cooked the figures -- (Bashir) didn't get 51 percent of the vote," UMMA Reform and Renewal leader Mubarak al-Fadil told Reuters. "His campaign was conducted under one party system with all the foundations of a police state ... it was a farce."

The result was announced amid unusually high security - police used sniffer dogs and mirrors to check cars outside the venue, guarded by five trucks filled with armed police.

Flag waving NCP supporters gathered at the party's Khartoum headquarters and some slaughtered a camel in preparation for celebrations scheduled for Monday evening.

Bashir and Kiir's current coalition government has had a rocky five years since signing the 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil war between north and south Sudan.

North-south tensions bode poorly for full implementation of the peace deal, including next year's referendum.

Any major delay to that vote would be unacceptable to southerners who many analysts believe overwhelmingly desire secession.

Sudan's north-south war broadly pitted Khartoum's Islamic north against rebels from the south, where most follow Christianity and traditional beliefs.

The conflict, complicated by issues of ethnicity, oil and ideology, claimed 2 million lives and drove more than 4 million from their homes. (Additional reporting by Andrew Heavens; Editing by Giles Elgood)