News Article by REUTERS posted on September 27, 2000 at 08:24:55: EST (-5 GMT)
Sudan sets December date for elections
KHARTOUM, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Sudanese parliamentary and
presidential
elections will be held simultaneously between
December 11 and 20, a newspaper
quoted Sudan's General Elections
Commission (GEC) as announcing on Wednesday.
The independent al-Sahafi al-Douli said prospective
candidates would
register for the polls from November 13 to 16,
after voting registers had
been prepared.
A list of candidates would be published on November 25 ahead
of official
campaigning, which is to begin on November 28.
Results will be announced on
December 24, al-Sahafi al-Douli
said.
Ninety seats in the 360-seat parliament, covering 270
constituencies, are
reserved for women, teachers, businessmen,
farmers and herders.
The paper quoted GEC chairman Abdel Monein Zein al-
Nahas as
saying
Sudanese living or working abroad would be able to vote.
The government has said international observers would be
welcome to
monitor the polls, which opposition parties have said
should wait until
progress has been made towards ending Sudan's
17-year civil war.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir dissolved parliament last
December and
declared a state of emergency in a move to curb the
influence of
then-parliament speaker Hassan al-Turabi, for years
the leading ideologue in
Bashir's Islamist regime.
Bashir became president after leading a 1989 military coup.
He was elected
in 1996 for a five-year term.
Turabi has said he will not run against Bashir for
president, but would
put forward a candidate in his place.
He set up the Popular National Congress party in June, after
Bashir
supporters sacked him as secretary-general of the ruling
National Congress
Party, which Bashir heads.