Wins election
Elections are held for a president and a new National Assembly from March 2-28, the first since the coup. 125 members of the 400-seat National Assembly are nominated before the election, leaving 275 seats to be elected (of which 51 were ultimately uncontested). There are no political parties — all candidates ran as independents. Leaders of the Sudan’s main opposition parties, disbanded when Bashir took power, boycott elections. Ousted Prime Minister Mahdi, calls the elections a cheap attempt by the Government to buy legitimacy.
Bashir is elected president with 75.7% of votes. He will serve a five-year term, after which he will be allowed to run once more. He tells the crowd:
We have fully returned power in full to the people.
The New York Times reports the power behind Bashir’s government is widely believed to be the militant Muslim cleric Turabi, who is elected to a seat in Parliament in Khartoum.
National Congress Party formed
Bashir and Turabi form the National Congress Party, the only legally recognized political party in Sudan. The party has the same Islamist ideology as its predecessors National Islamic Front (NIF) and the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation, which Bashir headed as Chairman until 1993. Turabi is appointed Secretary General.
Dissolves parliament
After friction with Turabi over a bill he introduced to reduce the president’s powers, Bashir relieves him of the position of Secretary General, dissolves parliament and declares a three-month state of emergency, “to preserve the unity of the country and its coherence.” Bashir:
There are dangers against the country from abroad and internal problems that will aggravate the country’s problems that will not be allowed
Turabi:
We have heard of the revolution that eats its children, but not of the revolution that eats its father