Sudan: Protests will not lead to change in government – Omar al-Bashir

AP | Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir was defiant Monday in the face of more than 3 weeks of protests demanding his resignation, reiterating at a rally in the west of the country that a change in leadership can only come through the ballot box.

His ruling Popular Congress Party has nominated him to run for another term in office next year.

“The people brought this government to office and there is only one way to change it, and that’s the ballot box,” al-Bashir told hundreds of supporters in the Darfur city of Nyala. “The ballot box is what decides and the people of Sudan will chose who rules them in 2020, God willing.”

Al-Bashir’s years in office have failed to lift Sudan out of its poverty or bring peace and unity to the religiously diverse country. Sudan was Africa’s largest country until 2011, when the mainly Christian south seceded, following a referendum, taking with it about three quarters of the country’s oil wealth.

Sudan has slid deeper into economic crisis following the secession.

The ongoing, anti-government protests erupted on December 19, initially over price hikes and shortages but soon shifted to calling on the president to step down. The unrest has spread across much of Sudan, including areas north of Khartoum from which the country’s ruling establishment traditionally hails.

Al-Bashir on Monday repeated his claim the unrest is the work of Sudan’s foreign enemies who use local agents for their schemes. “They don’t like the stability we’ve achieved,” he said.

“There is an economic problem, and we are working to resolve it,” he said without elaborating. Last week, he pledged to continue state subsidies for basic items, raise salaries, improve health care and overhaul the banking system. He didn’t say how he intended to do any of that.

A number of measures – including the devaluation of the local currency, have failed to provide economic relief.