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Sudan holds landmark multi-party polls

11 April 2010 04:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Sudan is holding its first multi-party elections for 24 years, but the absence of several major political figures has seriously damaged their credibility, APA reports quoting News.bbc.co.uk web-page.
Several parties opposed to President Omar al-Bashir are boycotting the polls because of alleged malpractice.
But the National Elections Commission insists that the three-day elections will be free and fair and represent the will of the Sudanese people.
The polls will elect the country’s president, national assembly, and state governors and legislative bodies.
The Elections Commission has been heavily criticised by opposition parties and human rights groups who believe the landmark polls will be seriously flawed.
But Abel Alier, the chairman of the Elections Commission, was adamant that his organisation had not favoured the National Congress Party of President Omar al-Bashir.
"We are committed to free, fair polling," he said.
"We want to ensure that what we do will make it evident both to the voter, to the ordinary citizen, and to the world at large that this process of polling is going to be transparent."
The BBC’s James Copnall, in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, says the Elections Commission has given a dizzying array of detail about the polls, from the number of polling stations being used to the number of helicopters required to transport electoral material around this vast country, to the procedures in place to ensure fair voting.
But he adds that the electoral body has not convinced the parties opposed to President Bashir, with many of them are boycotting all or part of these polls to protest about alleged rigging.