South Sudan selects northerner as candidate

South Sudan selects northerner as candidate
In a sign they are more focused on running the south in advance of possible independence, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, a former rebel army that fought the north in a lengthy war, chose Yasir Arman, a Muslim and head of the party’s parliamentary group, as their candidate for the presidency.
The choice means Salva Kiir, the SPLM’s leader and current president of the south, will stay out of the national election and instead prepare for a key referendum next January in which a majority of southerners are expected to vote for independence.
Since the 1950s, non-Muslim southern rebels have fought against successive Arab-led regimes in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, seeking liberation from what they call oppression and discrimination.
Aid agencies warned last week that war between the north and south could reignite if the referendum on southern independence did not take place as planned.
Pagan Amum, SPLM secretary general, told Reuters: “We want Kiir to continue being the president of the south to take the people of the south to the referendum … Yasir Arman is a long term SPLM cadre and a capable leader and our best candidate.”
Mr Arman joined the rebels due to his disillusionment with the Khartoum regime and will run against Mr Bashir.
Members of the international community hope the election will be Sudan’s first credible poll in 24 years. It will be an important milestone during a year when the country will face numerous potential flashpoints in the run up to the referendum.
On the SPLM’s choice, John Ashworth of IKV Pax Christi, a Christian campaign group, said: “They know they’ve got no chance in the north. But the idea is that , whereas a southerner would get no votes at all, a northerner would get some. So they’re at least trying to show they’re serious.”
If Mr Kiir, the SPLM leader, had stood in the national election he would not have been able to stand in a parallel election in April where he will seek re-election as president of the south.
John Garang, Mr Kiir’s predecessor as SPLM leader, signed a peace deal with the Bashir regime in 2005 that ended the latest phase of the north-south civil war.
Mr Garang was a unifying figure who analysts said could have won election as president of the whole of Sudan, but he died in a helicopter crash a few months after the peace deal was signed.
Since then few political leaders in the north or the south have tried to make the continued unity of the country an attractive option for the Sudanese people.
For president Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes over Darfur, the election – if credible – is seen as a way to secure democratic legitimacy for the first time since he took power after a coup in 1989.
But following several delays, the election is now scheduled to take place so close to the referendum that some analysts say it is an unhelpful distraction and a potential source of instability.
“I think it would make sense to have elections after the referendum when we know what the next stage is: either one country or two,” said Mr Ashworth.
Deadly violence between different ethnic groups in the south has been on the rise in the past year and the SPLM has accused Khartoum of stoking the violence by channelling guns and money to the region. Khartoum rejects the charge.