President Omar Al-Bashir won Sudan’s first open elections in 24 years. Bashir won 68 per cent of the presidential vote, Sudan’s National Elections Commission announced. Bashir is expected to form a coalition with Kiir as the country heads toward a 2011 referendum on whether south Sudan should split off and become Africa’s newest state.
Bashir hoped that a win in a legitimate vote would help him defy the ICC warrant, in which he is accused of ordering a campaign of murder, torture and rape in Sudan’s Darfur region. The election was meant to mark Sudan’s transformation into a democratic state.
Bashir appeared on state television soon after the result saying the Sudanese people have achieved this moral victory before the eyes of the world in a civilized, high class and shared manner.