Sudan's Omar al-Bashir Wins Election to Extend His 26-year Presidency

Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir was re-elected on Monday with 94.5% of a vote boycotted by major opposition parties and denounced by western governments as lacking credibility.

“The number of votes obtained by candidate Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir of the National Congress Party was 5,252,478, or 94.5%” of ballots cast, the head of the election commission Mokhtar al-Asam declared in the capital, Khartoum.

Bashir – the only sitting head of state facing genocide charges at the international criminal court – faced few challengers for the presidency. His closest competitor, Fadl el-Sayed Shuiab of the small Federal Truth Party, won 79,665 votes, or 1.43%.



Sudan’s principal opposition parties refused to take part, saying there was little chance of a free and fair contest.

Political activists had campaigned for an unprecedented mass boycott, denouncing the vote as “a political charade”.

Polling stations in Khartoum were largely deserted despite a nationwide one-day extension. The African Union’s election observer mission said there had been a “generally low turnout of voters throughout”.

But Assam insisted reports of low turnout were “not accurate.” He put the figure at 46.4% across the four days of polling in which representatives of the national and state parliaments were also chosen. Nearly 13 million people were registered to vote at some 11,000 polling centres.

The controversial ballot has faced international condemnation, with the US, Britain and Norway last week criticising Sudan for its “failure to create a free, fair and conducive elections environment”. Rights campaigners have been quick to denounce result.