Coalition of Opposition Parties to Meet on Saturday to Decide on Elections

26 March 2010 - (Khartoum) – The coalition of the national opposition parties says that they will hold a meeting on Saturday to decide on whether they will participate in or boycott the elections scheduled for April.

Last week, seventeen opposition parties presented a petition to President al-Bashir urging him to postpone the elections until November.

The spokesperson of the coalition, Farouk Abu Essa, spoke to SRS from Khartoum on Friday.

[Farouk Abu Essa]: “The leaders of the opposition parties will meet on Saturday morning at the Umma party’s headquarters, to give their final decision, to determine whether to participate in the elections or to boycott them. This is a very important meeting because it will be tackling an essential issue at an essential time in the political development of Sudan.”

Essa claimed that elections in April will have what he called "dangerous consequences" for the people of Sudan.

[Farouk Abu Essa]: “Personally I think that the elections are being conducted at the wrong time, politically, legally and from a security point of view. The NEC are handling the elections process like no one ever did before. Irregularity, electoral irregularlities and bias in favour of the ruling party, the NCP. Now it has become really dangerous because the results will not be accepted by people.”

Essa said that the international community should intervene to postpone the elections.

[Farouk Abu Essa]: “I have confirmed information that most of the foreign embassies in Khartoum have started evacuating their families. The UN alerted staff to evacuate their families and take them to their countries. If the civil societies in their different forms are scared for their sons, they should also look to our sons as well, and they should put pressure on the government to postpone the elections, because these elections are conducted with their money.”

Farouk Abu Essa, speaking to SRS from Khartoum on Friday.

On Friday evening, SRS could find no evidence to suggest that the families of international staff based in Khartoum were being evacuated.