KHARTOUM
Unofficial preliminary tallies of Sudan's elections – based on 25 polling stations across the country – indicate a landslide victory for President Omar al-Bashir, with some stations recording a 90 percent win for the incumbent ruler.
In capital Khartoum, al-Bashir scored significantly higher than his competitors for the country's highest office, according to unofficial results collected from ten polling stations in the capital.
Parliamentary candidates from al-Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP) also scored much higher than their competitors in Khartoum.
In South Darfur, unofficial tallies from five polling stations indicate a victory of over 90 percent for al-Bashir in the presidential poll.
However, NCP parliamentary candidates were met with a challenge in the polls by several independent candidates in the province.
Al-Bashir also scored over 90 percent of the vote in the central province of Al-Gezira, according to figures from ten polling stations.
On Thursday, the National Elections Commission (NEC) declared that final poll results would be announced on April 27.
The election, which kicked off Monday, was initially scheduled to end on Wednesday, but the NEC extended the vote for an additional day – to Thursday – due to low turnout on the first three days.
The elections were dogged by logistic, administrative and security difficulties, according to the electoral commission.
Some 13 million Sudanese were eligible to vote in the polls, which al-Bashir, who has ruled the country for over 25 years, is expected to win.
Voters also elected 425 members of parliament and 2,235 members of state legislative assemblies.
Opposition parties, for their part, had boycotted the vote.
