Arman quits presidential race. And now all the opposition are joining

The Sudanese presidential candidate Yassir Arman has pulled out of this month's vote, his ex -rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), announced late last night.

Meanwhile President Omar al-Bashir ruled out deferring the first multi-party polls in 24 years. 

Yasir Arman talking to the press

Arman, a secular Muslim from North Sudan, was selected in January 2010 by the SPLM, to be their presidential challenge to Bashir in April's presidential election.  "The National Congress Party has done all in its capacity to falsify the presidential election," Arman told reporters. Southern Sudan's vice president and SPLM deputy leader Dr. Riek Machar also told a news conference that Arman was quitting the race. "We withdraw our candidate to the presidency," he said after a meeting of the SPLM political bureau which also decided to boycott the election process in Darfur. 

The withdrawal of Arman’s candidature has received mixed reactions from the streets of Juba this Thursday morning, with many Southerners I spoke to calling it "an unfortunate decision" and not understanding the reasons behind it, hoping that the decision will be reversed or become clearer in the coming hours. " Who's decision was it exactly?" people are asking.

A Juba stall holder asked this morning  "Is it possible for the SPLM to reverse the decision?"

The United States, Britain and Norway meanwhile issued a joint call urging all sides in Sudan to work together for credible elections.

Bashir told a political rally in Damazin, the capital of the Blue Nile state: "The elections will not be postponed or cancelled. They will take place on time and our partner the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, agrees with us, that the presidential, legislative and municipal elections should be held as planned on April 11-13", Bashir added.

But late on Wednesday night an SPLM party official dropped the bombshell and announced that Arman was quitting the race. "Yassir Arman has pulled out of the presidential race," a senior SPLM official told AFP, without providing reasons for the decision. He said however that the SPLM will present candidates to regional and legislative elections "across Sudan, except for Darfur."

On Monday Arman accused Bashir of trying to tamper with the polls, after a contract to print ballots went to a state-owned press. Earlier Wednesday a coalition of opposition groups warned that going ahead with the polls as scheduled would be, according to their spokesman Faruq Abu Issa, a "disaster."  Opposition groups say the conditions for a free and fair election are not in place and that insecurity in war-torn Darfur, in Western Sudan, will also prevent participation of voters there.  "We stress the importance of postponing the elections until November in order to hold free and fair elections," said Mariam al-Mahdi from the opposition Umma party. But this morning in reaction to Arman's withdrawal, some opposition parties are voicing a feeling of betrayal and are now reconsidering their positions.  Some are uneasy about the unilateral SPLM decision, suggesting that it might have been done in coordination with the National Congress Party (NCP) for fear of the NCP placing hurdles before the 2011 referendum. "This is a betrayal by the SPLM of its agreement with the opposition forces," said Kamal Omer from the opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP), adding that their party would not be boycotting the polls. This is in the context of a decision in January by the NCP not to field a candidate against SPLM chairman Salva Kiir for the Southern Sudan presidency and called on the former rival to reciprocate, which at the time was rejected. This is what now is making the opposition parties smell betrayal.   Was this a pre-planned deal between the SPLM and NCP? Sideeg Yousuf from the Communist Party said he was surprised by the unilateral announcement, which he called "rushed."  "The SPLM and all the opposition parties had agreed that they would make their position in consensus at a meeting tomorrow [Thursday]".  That consensus is now lost, but he added he hoped the parties would still all meet today.   

 "We urge all parties in Sudan to work urgently to ensure that elections can proceed peacefully and credibly in April," : statement by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Store.

Boycotting the elections would secure the re-election of Bashir, who rose to power in a 1989 military coup backed by Islamists and who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur.  Britain, Sudan's former colonial power, and Norway, a main provider of aid to Sudan, joined the United States in expressing concern on Wednesday over the election procedures.  "We urge all parties in Sudan to work urgently to ensure that elections can proceed peacefully and credibly in April," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Store said.  "We are deeply concerned by reports of continued administrative and logistical challenges, as well as restrictions on political freedoms," they said. The US, British and Norwegian foreign ministers also said the election should prove a "major milestone" in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended a 24 year civil war.

Under the peace deal, mostly Christian and animist Southern Sudan obtained the right to hold a referendum in January 2011 on whether to break away from the Muslim-majority North. On Monday, Bashir warned that an elections boycott by the SPLM former rebels would result in the north rejecting the South holding the referendum.

.... nobody here on the streets of Juba this morning needs reminding of the horrors of war that we must never return to.

Opposition presidential candidates and the SPLM were due to meet on Thursday to decide on whether they will boycott the election, so now let's hope the SPLM will get their message clear, for the future of our country and for a peace that all the Sudanese people desperately deserve.   Perhaps it is not too late for Yasir Arman to reverse his decision?

Either way, the people of Juba and the whole of Sudan need some immediate clarity on this recent turn of events, as nobody here on the streets of Juba this morning needs reminding of the horrors of war that we must never return to.