Sudan's ruling National Congress Party was heading for a landslide win Sunday with some 278 seats out of 360 officially attributed following legislative elections, the General Electoral Commission (GEC) chief said.
GEC Chairman Abdel Monim al-Zain al-Nahas told a press conference that an overwhelming majority of the winners so far were from the National Congress (NC) party and that fewer than 10 were either independents, or from the Muslim Brotherhood and the south Sudanese United Democratic Salvation Front (UDSF).
Many NC candidates were declared winners even before the voting started on December 13, as they stood unchallenged.
Nahas said elections had not been held in 20 geographical constituencies in southern Sudan, three in Kassala State, eastern Sudan, and one constituency in the southeastern Blue Nile region, for lack of security due to rebel activities.
He said he will ask the head of state to name MPs to represent those 24 constituencies.
Nahas said 30 other results, including those of three women constituencies, had been suspended following complaints filed by rival candidates alleging irregularities.
Those constituencies included one in the River Nile State, north of Khartoum, where a defeated candidate complained that his rival, presidential advisor al-Tayeb Ibrahim Mohamed Khair, used public funds and vehicles for his campaign.
Nahas added the GEC had not yet received the results of 28 other constituencies, most of them in the Unity, Upper Nile and Joglei states in southern Sudan.
In addition to MPs for 270 geographical constituencies, parliament will include 35 representatives for women, 26 for university graduates and 29 for trade unions.
Nahas said he would submit to the head of state a report on the presidential and legislative election to enable him to call the new parliament by the end of January.
These partial legislative results come after President Omar al-Bashir's landslide victory in the simultaneously held presidential election. Bashir won 86.5 percent of the vote with over two-thirds of voters turning up to cast their ballots, according to official results given Friday.
However, the opposition contested the result of the presidential poll at a news conference Saturday, saying the vote had been "a large-scale rigging campaign".
"All sorts of collective and individual corruption have been practiced to rig the election process in an unprecedented manner to counterfeit the will of the people," said former president Jaafer Nimeiri, who officially came in second with 9.6 percent of the vote -- KHARTOUM (AFP)
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