AFRICA/SUDAN – Elections contested by the opposition begin, while tension increases with South Sudan

Khartoum (Agenzia Fides) - The 7,100 seats in the polls for the presidential and parliamentary elections in Sudan open today, 13 April. The vote, which will run for three days, was boycotted by the main opposition parties, that accuse the regime of outgoing President Omar al-Bashir, for refusing to participate in the preparatory meetings of National Dialogue, which were held in March in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. And it seems that candidate Bashir is likely to win the presidential election, where he will have to face 15 other contenders. Since 2009, Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur. On the eve of the vote, authorities released opposition and civil society leaders, who were arrested in December, on their return from Ethiopia, where they had signed the "Sudan Appeal", a political manifesto calling for a change of regime for Sudan. We are talking about Abu Eisa, leader of the coalition of opposition parties, the National Consensus Forces (NCF), and Amin Mekki Madani, President of the Civil Society Initiative (CSI), which groups the associations of civil society. In a statement the CIS states that the release of the arrested leaders is "a trick to deceive the international community" and called for a national uprising to overthrow the regime.
Meanwhile, the government of South Sudan has accused the aviation of Khartoum of having hit various South Sudanese locations and threatened to seek foreign help to defend itself against Sudanese bombing. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 13/04/2015)