[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is likely to face a second round runoff against one of his opponents in April elections, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said on Thursday.The presidential poll is to be held on April 11 in conjunction with parliamentary and regional elections as part of Sudan's first multi-party ballot since 1986.
Carter, who founded the Carter Center which is monitoring the elections, said he believed there was a "high likelihood" the presidential contest would need a second round.
"We don't know yet whether President Bashir can get a majority at the beginning round," Carter told reporters in the southern capital. "If not, which I think is likely, then there will be a runoff between him and the second person who got the most votes."
Clairvoyant Jimmuah strikes again ...
In the election, the south's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) is challenging its former civil war enemies, Bashir's northern ruling National Congress Party (NCP).
Tensions are rising ahead of the ballot, with concerns the contest could boost violence in regions already struggling because of bloody inter-ethnic clashes that killed 2,500 people in south Sudan in 2009.
However, Carter said he expected there would be even more violence, and voiced hope it could be kept at a local level.
Tell him to stay there...keep an eye on things.