[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudan's former southern rebels launched their campaign on Sunday for the nation's first multi- party elections in 24 years, fielding the man likely to be President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's strongest challenger.Targeting the country's marginalized millions, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) is campaigning for the presidential and legislative polls in April under the slogan "hope for change".
Presidential candidate Yasir Arman, who is actually a northerner, stressed the SPLM's appeal to voters of different religions throughout Africa's largest nation.
"Before we are northern or southern, Muslim or Christian, first of all we are Sudanese," Arman said. "Our country links the Arabs with the Africans," he said at the former home of Ali Abdel Latif, who led a revolt against British colonial rule in 1924.
The SPLM joined Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP) in an uneasy coalition government after ending 22 years of civil war between the mainly Arab and Muslim north and the south where people are largely Christian or animist.
Arman said the SPLM supported "voluntary unity", referring to a referendum on independence which will be held in South Sudan next January.
SPLM Chairman Salva Kiir left Arman, a lower level figure in the party, to run for the national presidency and instead chose to stand for president of South Sudan, which many analysts believe will vote for secession.