10th April 2010: As numerous opposition parties, including the main opposition party - the SPLM - declare their decision to boycott the Sudanese elections in Darfur and most states in northern Sudan this weekend, Waging Peace is calling on the international community to declare the results invalid.

The SPLM's presidential candidate has withdrawn from the race their presidential candidate, and are refusing to take part in 13 out of 15 northern Sudanese states, on the basis of claims of election rigging by Bashir’s NCP and ongoing government-sponsored violence in Darfur .

It has been clear to all observers that these much heralded ‘multiparty elections’ have never been more than an attempt by a President who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity to legitimise his position in the eyes of the international community. To this end the NCP have pulled out all the stops to make sure that Bashir wins, falsifying the 2008 census, violently dispersing opposition protests and denying many thousands of Darfuri people the right to vote.

Without sufficient international monitoring or intervention, the NCP has been allowed to sabotage this process to such an extent that it is unsalvageable: to accept the results would make a farce of democracy.

The government in Khartoum is committed to these elections by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005 and international agencies and the US in particular should use this opportunity to demonstrate to Bashir that he cannot manipulate and subvert his way to a legitimate victory. Instead minimum criteria for free and fair elections in Sudan must be set in place and vigilantly monitored by outside authorities.

The  Sudanese elections cannot be expected to meet the same benchmarks as those in established democracies, but for the people of Sudan we must demand better than this.