News

‘Sudan's low voter turnout means a vote for change’: rebel leader

Apr 20 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

The 2015 general election has brought about “new political realities”, says Yasir Arman, External Relations Officer of the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance and Secretary-General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North.

In a statement released today, Arman lauds the “15 percent voter turnout”, saying that the boycott of the election by the majority of the Sudanese represents “a vote of no confidence in the regime, and it is, indeed, a vote for change”.  

Reports on detention of activists in Sudan increase

Apr 16 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

Various sources in Sudan reported the detention of a number of anti-election campaigners during the past few days. 

According to the Darfur Bar Association, human rights lawyer Musa Zakariya Juju and his client were detained in Khartoum on Sunday. Lawyer Ali Saeed Kuku was held at his office in El Sawra district in Omdurman. University teaching assistant Khaled Khalil Musa, and teacher Khamees Hamdan were taken from their homes in El Sawra.

‘Paramilitary forces cast their vote more than once in North Darfur’

Apr 16 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

Militiamen reportedly voted much more than once in Saraf Umra. The ballot boxes at the Aradeiba polling centre in Saraf Umra locality were stolen today. Government-backed militiamen are threatening to kill people in Birkat Seira and surroundings, if they do not vote for incumbent President Al Bashir and the local candidate of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP).

Counting of ballots starts in Sudan

Apr 16 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

The counting of the ballots started on Friday, after the presidential and parliamentary election, extended with a fourth day on Thursday, was concluded. The National Election Commission (NEC) will announce the results on 27 April.

The chairman of the AU Election Observation Mission, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, confirmed the weak turnout at a press conference in Khartoum on Friday.

African civil society raise concern over AU monitoring of Sudan election

Apr 15 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

A group of 25 African and Sudanese civil society organisations have sent a letter to the AU Commission and the AU High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) for Sudan, expressing their “deep concern” about the decision by the AU Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) to send a an electoral observation mission to Sudan.

Sudan election extended with one day, police ordered to vote

Apr 15 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

The National Election Commission (NEC) on Wednesday announced the extension of the official three-day voting process with one day. Two presidential candidates announced their withdrawal. The police in Khartoum has been pressured to vote. 

Because of the very poor voters’ turnout throughout the country, the NEC on Tuesday had already extended the voting time for Wednesday, the third and officially the last day of the presidential and parliamentary election, from 6pm to 7pm.

Five polling centres closed in Central Darfur’s Garsila

Apr 15 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

The National Election Commission (NEC) has announced the closure of five of the 16 polling centres in Garsila, capital of Wadi Salih locality, because of a delay in the arrival of voting materials.

NEC spokesman El Hadi Mohammed Ahmed said that 160 out of 7,000 polling centres distributed over 18 states witnessed logistical problems on Monday, the first voting day.

20 South Darfuris detained for refusing to vote

Apr 15 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

Security officers detained 20 people, most of them women, in South Darfur's Gireida on Tuesday, when they refused to leave the Zakat Chamber and cast their votes instead. Security forces in North Darfur’s Kutum knocked on house doors, ordering the residents to vote.

A relative of one of the detainees told Radio Dabanga that a force of security agents, led by the head of security of Gireida locality, told a group of poor women and men applying for financial support at the Zakat (Islamic alms) Chamber, to move to the polling centres and vote for President Al Bashir.  

Sudan votes in polls set to extend Bashir's rule

Apr 13 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Al Jazeera

Sudan is voting in elections shunned by the opposition and expected to see the incumbent President Omar al-Bashir hold on to power for another five-year term.

Voting in the general and presidential elections began at 8am on Monday and will continue for three days.

More than 13 million people have registered to vote at some 11,000 polling stations across the country, but voting got off to a slow start, with mostly soldiers and elderly people showing up at locations visited by Al Jazeera.

Sudanese Umma Party organises sit-in against election

Apr 13 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

The National Umma Party (NUP) launched a sit-in at its headquarters in Omdurman on Saturday, in protest against the election that started today.

A large number of political leaders and civil society activists participated in the sit-in. On Sunday, Faroug Abu Eisa, head of the National Consensus Forces (NCF, a coalition of opposition parties), Dr Amin Mekki Madani, chairman of the Civil Society Initiative, and Farah El Agar, legal consultant of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) attended.

AU deploys election observers to various states in Sudan

Apr 13 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

The African Union (AU) launched its election monitoring in Sudan on 10 April with the deployment of 20 short-term observers from 14 African countries, representing institutions such as the Pan-African Parliament, Election Management Bodies, and civil society organisations.

The observers were deployed in teams of two to cover seven states in the country, the AU Election Observation Mission (AUEOM) said in its arrival statement today.

Extremely low turnout on Sudan’s first election day

Apr 13 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

Most of the polling stations, which opened their doors at 8am this morning, remained empty throughout the day, amid a widespread boycott by opposition parties and civil society organisations.

Sources in the five states of Darfur; South, North, and West Kordofan; River Nile state and Northern State; El Gezira and White Nile  in central Sudan, and in eastern Sudan reported to Radio Dabanga that the turnout was extremely low during the first day of voting.

Sudanese opposition step up anti-election campaign

Apr 09 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

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”.

Sudanese opposition leaders Abu Eisa, Madani, and El Agar released

Apr 09 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

Faroug Abu Eisa, head of the National Consensus Forces (NCF, a coalition of opposition parties), Dr Amin Mekki Madani, chairman of the Civil Society Initiative, and Farah El Agar, legal consultant of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), were released today.

The three opposition leaders were detained in Khartoum on 6 December, after their return from Addis Ababa, where Abu Eisa and Madani had signed the Sudan Appeal, a political communiqué calling fro regime-change, together with the National Umma Party and the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance.

Anti-election campaign scares population of South Kordofan

Apr 08 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

The Commissioner of Rashad locality in South Kordofan has accused anti-election campaigners of terrifying the population. The election, scheduled to take place between 13 and 15 April, has been postponed in seven of the war-torn region’s electoral districts for security reasons.

Thousands of newly displaced from El Abbasiya Tagali are living in the open along El Abbasiya road leading to Um Rawaba in the north. The majority of the people who fled fighting in Habila more than a week ago, reportedly returned to their homes.

Darfur displaced call for nation-wide protest during election

Apr 08 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

The Coordination Office of the Darfur Displaced and Refugees Association has called for a nation-wide boycott of the general election scheduled for 13-15 April.

“We call on all the Sudanese not to cast their vote next week, and to stage mass demonstrations instead, in protest against the rigged election and the brutal regime in Khartoum,” Yagoub Mohamed Abdallah, head of the Coordination Office told Radio Dabanga.

He stressed that the Darfur displaced and refugees are all convinced that unless the regime is overthrown, there will be no stability in Sudan.

Sudan’s opposition forces renew call to boycott April election

Apr 06 2015
Sudan
Source: 
Dabanga Sudan

Opposition ‘Sudan Appeal’ forces have added their voices to the swelling call to boycott the election scheduled of 13 April.

In a statement issued to mark the 30th anniversary of 6 April 1985 popular uprising which ended the rule of general Jaafar Numeiri, the coalition of the political and armed opposition forces said the government obstructed the African Union brokered pre-dialogue meeting and aborted the German initiative to facilitate a negotiated settlement.

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