The opposition had just announced its boycott because the young people marched with banners from Girifna on already outside the headquarters of the Electoral Commission in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. "We want free elections," stood on their banners, "or even: "Girifna," Sudanese-Arabic dialect for "We are fed up." If the elections that will begin on Sunday in the Sudan, have something good, then, that for the first time a civil society opposition to the International Criminal Court as war criminals sought President Omar al-Bashir suggests.
clear words, believes Siraj Omar, is the key to convince as many Sudanese believe that not al-Bashir must not win. "We are trying to reach people in a language they understand," says co-founder of Girifna, an organization that is committed to the replacement of Bashir. Founded a few months from a handful of students, it has steadily gained new, mostly young supporters. The top candidate of the opposition, mostly political bigwigs of past decades and beyond the seventy, had forgotten how to reach the masses, says Omar.
Most opposition parties and candidates have also withdrawn in recent days and said the boycott. Bashir that wins the election, is beyond question. Nevertheless, the 21-year-old Omar is not. "We want political and social change, we must start at the polls."
have yet the actions of some Girifna partisan-like, such as the distribution of leaflets, when Omar with a quick step on all seats of a bus rushes along and at the next station will pop out before anyone can take the pursuit. "I have no fear for myself," Omar says defiantly. "I possibly afraid that they take away my leaflets could have." On the bright orange flyers in a hand is seen, which makes the victory sign, and turn the Girifna-motto: "We are fed up!"
Omar trusted in the new new media. In her blog spread the movement of current fraud allegations and calls for meetings, which will be invited to SMS. On a Facebook page can be supporters of "fans", short updates are sent via Twitter. On YouTube, the group has a rap video set, which promotes fair elections. "Two thirds of all voters are young people. If we can achieve the changes a bit."
that affects the message shows the reaction of the regime. Omar's friend, Abdallah Mahdi Badawi, a 18-year-old student, was mid-March, the victim of a robbery of secret agents. "A new Girifna member, Hassan wanted to meet me, he had a friend there." On the way to a nearby tea house, the two Mahdi dragged into an alley, threatened him with a gun and took him to an office, hung on the wall a portrait of the feared former intelligence chief Salah Gosh. "Thirteen men have beaten me with sticks, Whips and electric cables. They shouted at me:?. What are your plans, who are your members, whence come your money "Once they stopped Mahdi a gun to his temple and threatened to pull the trigger Another time, she expressed Mahdi a glass to his lips, the allegedly contained a deadly virus. "They threatened me that they are the people that Mohammed Musa have been killed, the students from Darfur, who was assassinated in February in Omdurman."
survived But Mahdi. Before the men let him go, he had to sign a series of documents, including a promissory note for 31,000 euros Because of this promissory note Mahdi knows even the name of his tormentor. Army Lieutenant Mohammed Nur Aldai.
It's not like this last incident, which unite the young civil society and the opposition in the call to the international community not to recognize the elections in Sudan. Some, like the Sudan Democracy First Group invite international election observers to withdraw to the elections not to artificially confer legitimacy. A first success: the head of the EU Election Observation Mission, Veronique De Keyser, announced on Wednesday on the withdrawal of monitors from Darfur. "Not even humanitarian aid workers to go there," said De Keyser, "so we can not." Copyright
the newspaper, 10.4.10
