NAIROBI, Kenya — Several of Sudan’s
biggest opposition parties announced Thursday that they were planning a
full boycott of the national elections this month, casting a cloud of
uncertainty over Sudan’s first multiparty vote in more than 20 years and
complicating the landmark agreement that ended decades of civil war in
the country.
The warning followed a surprise announcement the night before by the
leading opposition candidate, Yasir Arman, that he was dropping out of
the presidential race because it was “impossible” to hold an election in
the conflict-racked region of Darfur and that the whole electoral
process had been “rigged.”
However, he said that his party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement,
which fought a long and bloody war against Sudan’s government, would
continue to participate in the parliamentary and local elections across
the country, except for Darfur.
On Thursday, more than half a dozen other important opposition parties
held a long meeting in which they concluded that the elections would be
so flawed that they did not want to participate at all. Still, the
parties seemed to allow themselves some wiggle room, with opposition
leaders saying that they needed to consult their members before making
any final decisions.
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