Sudan's supreme court will consider a suit filed by opposition lawyers against the elections watchdog demanding this month's general elections be called off, a court member and a lawyer said Sunday.
Opposition lawyer Ghazi Suleiman said the suit argues that the General Electoral Commission (GEC) "cannot conduct the forthcoming elections in absence of the parliament," which was dissolved a year ago by President Omar al-Beshir, because it answers to both the government and parliament.
"It is a waterproof objection and the Constitutional Court has to accept it, otherwise it will harm its integrity and credibility," Suleiman said.
He said the constitution does not empower the president alone to issue provisional presidential decrees related to elections.
The supreme constitutional court's justice Ali Yahia said the Court has sent the GEC a copy of the suit presented by Suleiman and other lawyers of the opposition National Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (NARD).
The court will hear the GEC's reply to the suit presented by the attorney general in a hearing Wednesday.
The same court has also decided to study a case filed by another lawyer contesting the GEC's endorsement of President Omar al-Beshir and former president Jaafar Nimeiri as presidential candidates.
Lawyer Mahmud Shaarani complained that Beshir, as incumbent president, could order all state employees to vote for him, while slamming Nimeiri's nomination as a "provocative insult" to the Sudanese people who rose in a popular uprising and overthrew him in 1985.
Sudan's official SUNA news agency meanwhile reported that 11 representatives of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) will arrive in Khartoum on Tuesday to monitor the presidential and legislative elections set for December 11-20 -- KHARTOUM (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
