Voters in Sudan started casting their votes on Monday to elect a president and members for the national and state parliaments amid boycott by most of the opposition parties.
No fewer than 13.6 million registered voters in the country would cast their ballots at 7,000 polling stations.
The polling process is to last till Wednesday while counting of votes is set to begin the next day.
However, the final results of the elections are scheduled to be announced on April 27.
Forty-five political parties, most of them small ones, are taking part in the race at its three levels, while 16 candidates, including incumbent President Omar al-Bashir, were running for the post of president.
A total of 1,072 candidates are running for seats at the national parliament and 2,235 others for the state legislative seats.
Report says regional organisations such as the African Union, the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development in Africa (IGAD) and the Arab League are monitoring the elections.
On Friday, EU Foreign Policy Chief, Federica Mogherini, said in a statement that EU announced that it would not take part in monitoring Sudan’s general elections.
“The failure to initiate a genuine national dialogue one year after it was announced by the government of Sudan is a setback; a real setback for the welfare of the people of Sudan.
“When dialogue is bypassed, some groups are excluded and civil and political rights are infringed.
“The upcoming elections cannot produce a credible result with legitimacy throughout the country,’’ the statement added.
No comments:
Post a Comment