Sudanese leader al-Bashir wins presidential vote in elections marred by fraud allegations

Sudan’s incumbent president wins re-election

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Sudan’s president won another term in office Monday with a comfortable majority in elections marred by boycotts and fraud allegations, becoming the first head-of-state to be re-elected while facing an international arrest warrant for war crimes.

The victory by Omar al-Bashir was widely expected after his most credible challengers pulled out from the race complaining of fraud.

But it was likely to raise questions over his international standing and among his opponents, and was unlikely to alter Sudan’s isolation. Al-Bashir can’t travel freely because he risks being arrested to face charges before the Hague-based International Criminal Court for war crimes committed in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

Sudan’s first multiparty presidential, parliamentary and local elections in 24 years were a key requirement of a 2005 peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war between the predominantly Arab and Muslim north and rebels in the Christian-animist south.

The fighting left 2 million people dead and many more displaced. The elections set the road for the crucial 2011 referendum where the south will decide whether it wants to secede.

International observers said the vote failed to meet international standards because of delays, intimidation and faulty lists, but they did not call for a revote. Instead the observers recommended that lessons drawn from the process be applied to next year’s vote on southern independence.

Al-Bashir garnered 68 percent of more than 10 million valid ballots, according to Abel Alier, the head of Sudan’s National Elections Commission.

The president appeared on television shortly after the results to declare “the success of these elections is in essence a success for the Sudanese people.” He promised to reach out to all forces in Sudan to form a national “partnership” and vowed to make sure that the referendum takes place.

“You gave us your trust,” he said. “I reaffirm I will go ahead with the southern referendum on time and complete the peace process in Darfur.”

South Sudan’s President Silva Kiir also kept his post, garnering nearly 93 percent of the votes in the south. Kiir, who also heads southern Sudan’s largest political party and junior partner in the government, was also expected to remain in control.

The results for the local governors, the first to be held in Sudan, also came in Monday.

The five-day voting, which began April 11, was marred by allegations of fraud and boycotts and raised concerns of new unrest. Violence were reported in areas of the south.

Elections results were delayed amid difficulties in counting and transporting ballots from around the vast country.

Al-Bashir, who came to power 21 years ago in a military coup, was charged by ICC prosecutors for alleged war crimes in Darfur, where a separate conflict between government and rebel forces broke out in 2003. An estimated 300,000 people died of violence, disease and displacement.

Al-Bashir was expected in neighboring Egypt on Tuesday, where he faces no threat of arrest. Most Arab and African nations don’t recognize the ICC and its warrant for al-Bashir.

Ahmed Hussein, the spokesman for Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement, said his group will not accept the election results and has been conferring with other opposition groups on the matter.

Many Darfurians boycotted the elections, specially those in refugee camps.

“Things in our country are not going according to what the people of Sudan wanted. This is going to lead to tension and chaos,” Hussein said. “People are not going to accept al-Bashir for another five years.”

Mariam Sadiq, a senior member of the Umma party which had pulled out of the race, said the election results are “morally more corrupt” than the coup that brought al-Bashir to power and called the voting “a costly and ineffective experience.”