KHARTOUM (AFP) – Nine candidates have been approved to run against President Omar al-Beshir in Sudan's April 11 polls, the electoral commission said on Saturday after rejecting three hopefuls.
The presidential vote is to be held in conjunction with parliamentary and regional elections as part of the troubled African country's first multi-party ballot since 1986.
"We announce today the primary list of candidates for the presidency. We received 13 requests (and) 10 of them were accepted," Al-Hadi Mohammed Ahmed of the electoral commission told reporters.
The candidates include former premier and Islamist Umma party leader Sadiq al-Mahdi, who was ousted in 1989 in a military coup led by Beshir, and Yasser Arman of the southern ex-rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).
The remaining candidates belong to smaller parties, and two are independents.
The nominees who were turned down -- including Fatima Ahmed Abdelmahmud, the first woman to attempt to run for the presidency -- have a week to contest the commission's decision.
"I'm going to appeal," Abdelmahmud told AFP.
"The electoral commission had said my file was complete, but today they called me to say that my application was rejected because my list of signatures has not been stamped by the authorities in different states," she said.
Potential candidates had been required to gather 15,000 signatures, including 200 from 18 of the country's 25 states.
The elections are taking place as part of a 2005 agreement between the Muslim north and largely Christian south that ended a 22-year civil war.
The Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA), as the deal is known, also allowed the creation of a semi-autonomous government for the south and paved the way for a referendum on southern independence scheduled for January 2011.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday it was vital the elections and the referendum were carried out in a credible, transparent way in what would be a crucial 12-month period for Sudan.
"Whatever the result of the referendum, we have to think how to manage the outcome," Ban said in Addis Ababa, adding: "It is very important for Sudan but also for the region."
Analysts say the opposition aims to split the presidential vote to prevent Beshir from netting the simple majority he needs to win, which would lead to a second round and enable the opposition to field a single candidate against him.
Beshir is the only sitting head of state to have been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, whose prosecutor has accused him of responsibility for war crimes in the Darfur region.
The United Nations says 300,000 people have died in Darfur since ethnic rebels revolted against the Khartoum government, complaining of discrimination.
Official campaigning for the presidential vote begins on February 18 and ends three days before voting begins on April 11, according to the electoral commission.
The ballot count is expected to take a week in the vast country -- the African continent's largest -- and if no candidate obtains a simple majority, a run-off is then scheduled to take place on May 10 and 11.
Human Rights Watch last week accused Beshir's National Congress Party and southern authorities led by the SPLM of abuses against opposition supporters.