sudan
Senior Member
- Oct 17, 2012
- 266
- 11
- 51
On February 4, 2015 the mainstream opposition coalition in Sudan, the National Consensus Forces (NCF), launched a campaign for what it called the “effective boycott” of the general elections slated for April.
The launch of the campaign followed the signing of the Sudan Call declaration in which the NCF, the armed rebels alliance Sudan Revolutionary Forces and the Confederation of Civil Society Organizations (CCSO) called for the dismantling of the ruling National Congress Party’s (NCP) regime, to be replaced by a democratic state in which all citizens would be equal.
The opposition says the outcome of the election is guaranteed to lead to a sweeping NCP victory and re-election of President Al Bashir ; and of course the outcome of the elections is a fait accompli given the NCP’s total control of state resources and the bloated patronage network it has been building over the years to sustain its role.
But it is hard to see how the opposition’s decision to boycott the elections will lead to any result other than a repetition of past mistakes.
When the opposition boycotted the 2010 elections, the same arguments and justifications were cited; and nothing was gained.
The argument for boycotting the elections on the grounds of not lending electoral legitimacy to the NCP regime is ironic, coming as it does from political parties who are officially registered and regulated under the political parties’ act of 2007. Operating under the state’s regulations effectively means recognizing the legitimacy of NCP, for there is a total conflation between the two.
However, the Sudanese voters recognized that the opposition forces have lost its last chance to topple the NCP regime by deciding to boycott the electoral process, while they were expecting to see strong opposition forces with clear programme that would give options for selecting their representatives in the parliament.
The boycott of the opposition to the elections without providing any alternatives will lead the voters to use the punitive voting through which they give their votes to the NCP list in defiance of the opposition which failed to prove its seriousness during the last two decades.
The launch of the campaign followed the signing of the Sudan Call declaration in which the NCF, the armed rebels alliance Sudan Revolutionary Forces and the Confederation of Civil Society Organizations (CCSO) called for the dismantling of the ruling National Congress Party’s (NCP) regime, to be replaced by a democratic state in which all citizens would be equal.
The opposition says the outcome of the election is guaranteed to lead to a sweeping NCP victory and re-election of President Al Bashir ; and of course the outcome of the elections is a fait accompli given the NCP’s total control of state resources and the bloated patronage network it has been building over the years to sustain its role.
But it is hard to see how the opposition’s decision to boycott the elections will lead to any result other than a repetition of past mistakes.
When the opposition boycotted the 2010 elections, the same arguments and justifications were cited; and nothing was gained.
The argument for boycotting the elections on the grounds of not lending electoral legitimacy to the NCP regime is ironic, coming as it does from political parties who are officially registered and regulated under the political parties’ act of 2007. Operating under the state’s regulations effectively means recognizing the legitimacy of NCP, for there is a total conflation between the two.
However, the Sudanese voters recognized that the opposition forces have lost its last chance to topple the NCP regime by deciding to boycott the electoral process, while they were expecting to see strong opposition forces with clear programme that would give options for selecting their representatives in the parliament.
The boycott of the opposition to the elections without providing any alternatives will lead the voters to use the punitive voting through which they give their votes to the NCP list in defiance of the opposition which failed to prove its seriousness during the last two decades.
