News Article by AFP posted on October 02, 2000 at 17:51:29: EST (-5 GMT)
Islamist faction urges boycott of "dishonest" Sudanese elections
KHARTOUM, Oct 2 (AFP) - A breakaway faction of Sudan's ruling
Islamist
party on Monday called for a boycott of presidential and
parliamentary
elections scheduled for December, charging they will
be rigged.
The Popular National Congress (PNC) of Hassan al-Turabi will
stay away
because "the elections will not be neutral and honest,"
PNC official Mohamed
al-Hassan al-Amin told a press conference.
He said officials who usually take charge of the elections "have
recently
pledged support for President Omar al-Beshir" who is
running for a second
term, implying that they might rig the votes in
Beshir's favour.
Amin added the PNC could not participate amid "a fierce campaign
of
arrests" against PNC officials and members, putting the total
number at about
175 in Sudanese prisons where they are "subjected to
all sorts of torture."
The PNC official produced a memorandum signed by prisoners and
addressed
to Beshir complaining of "the inhumane, unhealthy and
debasing circumstances"
they are undergoing in prison.
"We have been arrested in repressive measures with some of us
beaten and
psychologically assaulted by the security authorities,"
the detainees said in
their memorandum.
They said that since their arrest no charges have been filed
against them
and that they have been arrested without knowledge or
permission by the
judicial authorities.
Sudan announced last month it will hold simultaneous
presidential and
legislative elections running from December 11-20
in the country's 26
regions.
Election results will be published on December 24.
The legislative vote was originally due to take place in March,
but Beshir
dissolved parliament in December 1999 and decreed a state
of emergency for
three months. That decree was renewed in April
until the end of the year.
The emergency measures were taken amid a power struggle with
Turabi, a
former ally who helped Beshir seize power in a 1989 coup.