Nairobi/Khartoum (Earth Times) - Southern Sudan's main party has withdrawn its candidate from upcoming presidential elections, raising further questions about Sudan's first multiparty elections since 1986.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) said late Wednesday that its candidate Yasir Arman - considered President Omar al-Bashir's main rival - would not stand due to irregularities and insecurity in the restive Darfur province.
As the elections, scheduled for April 11-13, approach, opposition parties and international bodies have increasingly criticized the poll and called for it to be delayed.
The International Crisis Group on Tuesday said that voter registers had been manipulated and that insecurity in Darfur meant many internally displaced had been unable to register.
New York-based lobby group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said last week that conditions were not "conducive for a free, fair and credible election".
"Unless there is a dramatic improvement in the situation, it's unlikely that the Sudanese people will be able to vote freely for leaders of their choice," Georgette Gagnon, HRW's Africa director, said in a statement.
However, al-Bashir has vowed to press on with the elections and on Monday threatened to cancel a referendum on independence for the south should opposition parties boycott the elections.
"Holding elections in the Sudan is a national obligation that should be fulfilled," Arabic broadcaster Al Jazeera quoted al-Bashir as saying.
"We don't have options in this respect. If they took the right to oppose the elections, we do have the same right to reject the referendum in the South."
The election is the first since the end of a decades-long civil war between the mainly Muslim north and the Christian and Animist south.
A 2005 peace deal ended the conflict, but insecurity has continued in the south, where clashes between rival ethnic groups claimed thousands of lives last year.
A timetable for the election and the referendum, due in 2011, was agreed in the peace deal.
While fighting has died off in the western province of Darfur, there remains a huge refugee population and general insecurity.
Al-Bashir also recently threatened to kick out election monitors after the US-based Carter Center, which runs a long-term monitoring mission in Sudan, aid a delay would be wise for logistical reasons.
"We brought these organizations from outside to monitor the elections, but if they ask for them to be delayed, we will throw them out," al-Bashir - who is running for office again despite being wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur - said.
"We wanted them to see the free and fair elections, but if they interfere in our affairs, we will cut their fingers off, put them under our shoes and throw them out."
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) said late Wednesday that its candidate Yasir Arman - considered President Omar al-Bashir's main rival - would not stand due to irregularities and insecurity in the restive Darfur province.
As the elections, scheduled for April 11-13, approach, opposition parties and international bodies have increasingly criticized the poll and called for it to be delayed.
The International Crisis Group on Tuesday said that voter registers had been manipulated and that insecurity in Darfur meant many internally displaced had been unable to register.
New York-based lobby group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said last week that conditions were not "conducive for a free, fair and credible election".
"Unless there is a dramatic improvement in the situation, it's unlikely that the Sudanese people will be able to vote freely for leaders of their choice," Georgette Gagnon, HRW's Africa director, said in a statement.
However, al-Bashir has vowed to press on with the elections and on Monday threatened to cancel a referendum on independence for the south should opposition parties boycott the elections.
"Holding elections in the Sudan is a national obligation that should be fulfilled," Arabic broadcaster Al Jazeera quoted al-Bashir as saying.
"We don't have options in this respect. If they took the right to oppose the elections, we do have the same right to reject the referendum in the South."
The election is the first since the end of a decades-long civil war between the mainly Muslim north and the Christian and Animist south.
A 2005 peace deal ended the conflict, but insecurity has continued in the south, where clashes between rival ethnic groups claimed thousands of lives last year.
A timetable for the election and the referendum, due in 2011, was agreed in the peace deal.
While fighting has died off in the western province of Darfur, there remains a huge refugee population and general insecurity.
Al-Bashir also recently threatened to kick out election monitors after the US-based Carter Center, which runs a long-term monitoring mission in Sudan, aid a delay would be wise for logistical reasons.
"We brought these organizations from outside to monitor the elections, but if they ask for them to be delayed, we will throw them out," al-Bashir - who is running for office again despite being wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur - said.
"We wanted them to see the free and fair elections, but if they interfere in our affairs, we will cut their fingers off, put them under our shoes and throw them out."
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