Editing Omar al-Bashir (section)

===Elections===

Omar al-Bashir was elected president (with a five-year term) in the 1996 national election<ref name="ReferenceB"/> and [[Hassan al-Turabi]] was elected to a seat in the National Assembly where he served as speaker of the National Assembly "during the 1990s".<ref name=appendix>The Appendix of the ''[[9/11 Commission Report]]''</ref> In 1998, al-Bashir and the Presidential Committee put into effect a new constitution, allowing limited political associations in opposition to al-Bashir's [[National Congress Party (Sudan)|National Congress Party]] and his supporters to be formed. On {{Nowrap|12 December}} 1999, al-Bashir sent troops and tanks against parliament and ousted [[Hassan al-Turabi]], the speaker of parliament, in a [[palace coup]].<ref name="Stefano Bellucci 2000">Stefano Bellucci, "Islam and Democracy: The 1999 Palace Coup", ''Middle East Policy'' 7, no. 3 (June 2000):168</ref>

He was reelected by popular vote for a five-year term during the [[2000 Sudanese general election]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://workmall.com/wfb2001/sudan/sudan_government.html|title=Sudan Government 2001 – Flags, Maps, Economy, Geography, Climate, Natural Resources, Current Issues, International Agreements, Population, Social Statistics, Political System|publisher=Workmall.com|access-date=30 October 2013|archive-date=16 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516114120/http://workmall.com/wfb2001/sudan/sudan_government.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

From 2005 to 2010, a transitional government was set up under a 2005 peace accord that ended the 21-year long [[Second Sudanese Civil War]] and saw the formation of a power-sharing agreement between [[Salva Kiir Mayardit|Salva Kiir]]'s [[Sudan People's Liberation Movement]] (SPLM) and al Bashir's [[National Congress (Sudan)|National Congress Party]] (NCP).<ref name="aljazeera.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2010/04/201042612282143933.html|title=Sudan president wins re-election|publisher=[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]]|date=27 April 2010|access-date=30 October 2013|archive-date=28 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140128193345/http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2010/04/201042612282143933.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Al-Bashir was reelected president in the [[2010 Sudanese general election]] with 68% of the popular vote;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.electionguide.org/countries/id/202/ |title=IFES Election Guide &#124; Country Profile: Sudan |publisher=Electionguide.org |access-date=30 October 2013 |archive-date=2 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402122832/http://www.electionguide.org/countries/id/202/ |url-status=live }}</ref> while Salva Kiir was [[2010 Southern Sudanese general election|elected President of Southern Sudan]]. These elections were agreed on earlier in the 2005 peace accord.<ref name="aljazeera.com"/> The election was marked by corruption, intimidation, and inequality. European observers, from the [[European Union]] and the [[Carter Center]], criticised the polls as "not meeting international standards". Candidates opposed to the SPLM said they were often detained or stopped from campaigning. Sudan Democracy First, an umbrella organisation in the north, put forward what it called strong evidence of rigging by al-Bashir's NCP. The Sudanese Network for Democracy and Elections (Sunde) spoke of harassment and intimidation in the south, by the security forces of the SPLM.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk" />

Al-Bashir had achieved economic growth in Sudan.<ref name="Gettleman">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/world/africa/24sudan.html|work=The New York Times|title=War in Sudan? Not Where the Oil Wealth Flows|first=Jeffrey|last=Gettleman|date=24 October 2006|access-date=20 May 2010|author-link=Jeffrey Gettleman|archive-date=11 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511233015/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/world/africa/24sudan.html|url-status=live}}</ref> This was pushed further by the drilling and extraction of oil-<ref name="Gettleman"/> However, economic growth was not shared by all. Headline inflation in 2012 approached the threshold of chronic inflation (period average 36%), about 11% up from the budget projection of 2012 reflecting the combined effects of inflationary financing, the depreciation of the exchange rate, and the continued removal of subsidies, as well as high food and energy prices. This economic downturn prompted cost of living riots that erupted into [[Arab Spring]]-style anti-government demonstrations, raising discontent within the [[Sudanese Workers' Trade Union Federation]] (SWTUF). They threatened to hold nationwide strikes in support of higher wages. The continued deterioration in the value of the Sudanese pound (SDG) posed grave downside risks to already soaring inflation. This, coupled with the economic slowdown, presents serious challenges to the implementation of the approved Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/countries/east-africa/sudan/|title=Sudan|access-date=17 December 2014|archive-date=18 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218210329/http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/countries/east-africa/sudan/|url-status=live}}</ref>