News Article by REUTERS posted on October 03, 2000 at 07:49:07: EST (-5 GMT)
Major Sudan opposition party says to boycott poll
KHARTOUM, Oct 3 (Reuters) - An opposition party led by
Sudan's chief
Islamic ideologue Hassan al-Turabi said it would
boycott upcoming elections,
the privately owned Alwan newspaper
reported on Tuesday.
"The Popular National Congress party (PNC) announced its
boycott of the
forthcoming presidential and parliamentary
elections due to what it called an
unsuitable political
climate," the pro-PNC daily said.
"The political situation is not conducive to holding
elections," the daily
quoted Mohamed al-Hassan al-Amin,
constitutional affairs official at the PNC,
as saying.
The PNC had been one of the main opposition parties planning
to
participate in the polls, due to be held over a three-month
period from
October 25.
Amin said he feared that elections would not be free and
fair, and that
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir would emerge as
the winner in any case.
The government has said international observers are welcome
to monitor the
polls, which opposition parties have said should
not be held until progress
is made towards ending Sudan's
17-year civil war.
Bashir dissolved parliament last December and declared a
state of
emergency in a bid to curb the influence of
then-parliamentary speaker
Turabi, for years the leading
idealogue in Bashir's Islamist regime.
Turabi set up the Popular National Congress party in June
after Bashir
supporters sacked him as secretary-general of the
ruling National Congress
Party, headed by Bashir.
Turabi has said he would not run against Bashir in the
presidential polls,
but would put forward a candidate in his
place. So far, Bashir is the only
candidate.