Sudan Elections 2010: Opposition Rejects Results

The opposition political forces have announced their unequivocal rejection of the results of the elections, which they described as a sham. They considered that these results will contribute to further complicating Sudan's crisis and reproducing the Salvation (Bashir) regime in a new form.
They asked Al-Bashir to disavow the result courageously. They stressed the necessity of convening a conference comprising all political forces and of forming a transitional government to manage Sudan's pending problems. They saw in what it described the discrepancy in the percentages Al-Bashir obtained in the North and the South an indicator of the future of the relationship between the two sides.

Importance of Transitional Government
The candidate of the Sudanese Alliance in the presidential elections, Brigadier (retired) Abd-al-Aziz Khalid, asked Umar al-Bashir whom he described a forged President to reject the election results courageously. He stressed the importance of forming a transitional government to manage Sudan's pending problems, including self-determination for the people of South Sudan and Darfur's peace, with this to culminate in new elections.

'If Al-Bashir accepts the result he becomes part of the forgery machine, and we have information that the delay in announcing the results was because of the need to find a way of making the percentage he won exceed 51 percent,' he said.

Boosting People's Morale
He called on the forces of the National Consensus to desist from participation in the coming government, drawing attention to the need to boost the morale of the Sudanese people. He insisted that change was coming through peaceful struggle, reminding that 'we are going into a strange experience in which there is a forged President who is wanted by criminal justice'. He demanded that those who reject the election results should be allowed to express their opinion just as the supporters are allowed to do.

Khalid said that the team that managed the forgery process committed unprofessional mistakes. He said it was not possible for him to get 'zero' in Nahr al-Nil Province since his party has members in the area, something that raises doubts about the result.

For his part, Dr Al-Shafi'i Khidr, a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee, said that the rigging that was documented during the electoral process raises doubts about the results. He said that the delay in announcing the results proves there was foul play by the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) to cook the results in their final form. 'We regret that the issues of destiny of our country are mortgaged to the deals cooked by the NCP,' he said.

Attempt To Reproduce Salvation Regime
Dr Al-Shafi'i cast doubts on the votes obtained by the two candidates who completed the electoral process, Hatim al-Sirr and Abdullah Deng Nhial. He said these did not represent the real total of votes they obtained. He described the result as a coup through forgery and an attempt to reproduce the Salvation regime in a new form. He said this will entrap the country in another crisis. He called for a conference comprising the political forces to find solutions for Sudan's crucial problems led by the elections crisis. 'If Salvation thinks the people will take what happened lying down then it is deluding itself,' he said. 'The Sudanese people add the mistakes and experiences together and eventually expose them.'

Within the same perspective Dr Miriam al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, a leading figure in the National Umma Party, said that the result was known in advance. She said the number of votes Al-Bashir obtained was not expected and that she had anticipated a percentage similar to that in the elections for governors. She said that the difficulty of forging the results in the South led to delaying the announcement of the results and looking for a way out. This was worked out in the announced result that came closer to the real picture, she said.

Discrepancy in Results
Dr Miriam drew attention to what she described the discrepancy in the results obtained by Al-Bashir in the North and South. She considered this as an indicator of the future of relations between the two sides. She said that these elections were the first in Sudan's history to be rejected in such a total way and that they were elections that were held unilaterally. She said the forgery that was made ignored the problem of managing diversity in Sudan. 'The hope was that the elections would be part of the solution but they increased tensions and congestion,' she said.

For his part, the Political Secretary of the Popular Congress Party, Kamal Umar, said that the elections were conducted under the heavy-hand of a regime which he described as unjust and despotic. He described the results of the executive and legislative elections as a sham that depended on forgery and corrupt methods.