Sudan re-elects war crimes suspect as leader

Sudan has re-elected a leader wanted for war crimes as president in the country’s first multi-party balloting in 24 years.

The election commission said Omar al-Bashir got 68% of over 10 million valid ballots.

Al-Bashir has an international arrest warrant out on him for war crimes in Darfur.

The five-day voting earlier this month was marred by boycotts and allegations of fraud.

International observers said the presidential, parliamentary and local elections failed to meet international standards but commended the high voter turnout.

Al-Bashir’s victory was widely expected after his most credible challengers pulled out of the race complaining of fraud.

But his tainted re-election was likely to raise questions over his international standing and among his opponents, and was unlikely to alter Sudan's isolation.

Al-Bashir cannot travel freely because he risks being arrested to face charges in front of the Hague-based International Criminal Court.

Sudan’s first multiparty presidential, parliamentary and local elections in 24 years were a key requirement of a 2005 peace deal that ended a 21-year civil war between the predominantly Arab and Muslim north and rebels in the Christian-animist south.

The fighting left two million people dead and many more displaced. The elections set the road for the crucial 2011 referendum where the south will decide whether it wants to secede.

International observers said the vote failed to meet international standards because of delays, intimidation and faulty lists, but they did not call for a revote.

Instead the observers recommended that lessons drawn from the process be applied to next year’s vote on southern independence.

Al-Bashir, in power for 20 years, has been charged with war crimes for alleged atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region, where a separate conflict between government and rebel forces broke out in 2003.

An estimated 300,000 people died of violence, disease and displacement.