Veteran Sudan leader to run for re-election

KHARTOUM — Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir — in power since a 1989 coup — will stand for re-election in 2015 after being retained Tuesday as leader of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), a top aide said.

Bashir, the only sitting head of state wanted by the International Criminal Court, was re-elected as both leader and presidential candidate of the NCP at a party convention, said his chief assistant, Ibrahim Ghandour.

The 70-year-old career soldier took power in an Islamist-backed coup, and there had been doubts about whether he would run again in the controversial election, slated for April.

In a March interview, Ghandour said Bashir "declared many times that he's not willing to" stand again but that the final decision was with the party.

Two knee operations over the summer also raised worries over his health.

But Bashir's name was put on the party's shortlist of five candidates and his tally in Tuesday's vote was enough to rule out further voting, Ghandour said.

The president garnered 266 out of the 396 votes cast, Ghandour said, with the remainder of the 522 advisory council members choosing not to take part.

The other four nominees were all senior NCP officials seen as close to Bashir: Ghandour himself, senior member Nafie Ali Nafie, ex-vice president Ali Osman Taha and First Vice President Bakri Hassan Saleh.