Sudan\\\'s Bashir riding high as he launches reelection bid

FE Team | Published: January 12, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

KHARTOUM, Jan 11 (AFP): Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir launched his bid for reelection Sunday, facing little threat to his quarter century in power despite an ailing economy, multiple insurgencies and allegations of war crimes.
Bashir's supporters view him as a strong hand capable of holding the chaotic country together, while his opponents are hounded by the security forces, marginalised inside Sudan and riven by personal rivalries.
It is unclear whether anyone will challenge Bashir to lead the country of nearly 39 million people, the third-largest in Africa covering an area almost one-fifth the size of the United States.
Formal applications to register for the April 13 vote opened on Sunday, and the electoral commission said it had already received Bashir's nomination.
The opposition looks set to boycott the vote, as it did in 2010 in the first contested election since Bashir seized power in a 1989 coup.
In that vote, opposition leaders accused the president's loyalists of rigging ballots around the country.
Since 2009, the 71-year-old incumbent has defied an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in the nearly 12-year-old conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur.
In 2011, he oversaw a split with South Sudan, after it voted overwhelmingly to break away following 22 years of civil war.
The president hinted last year that he might not stand for reelection, raising fears of a succession struggle within his ruling National Congress Party, but in October, the NCP announced he would seek another term.
"Bashir is in a strong position internally within government," said Ahmed Soliman, Horn of Africa research assistant at Chatham House.
He consolidated power further earlier this month when parliament granted him the right to appoint state governors, who were previously elected.
Bashir has worked to shed his image as an international pariah, travelling to Egypt and Saudi Arabia last year and welcoming Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Sudan.