About 66% of Sudan’s eligible voters cast ballots.[2] Al-Bashir received 86.5% of the votes cast for a five-year presidential term.[2] Former President Gaafar Nimeiry, who had returned to Sudan from exile in Egypt, polled 9.6% of the vote, and three other candidates received less than 4 percent among them.[2] Voters also elected 275 members of the National Assembly to four-year terms.[2] The ruling NCP won all but 10 seats; no other party contested 112 of the seats.[2] Of the 90 specially selected positions, 35 went to women, 26 to university graduates, and 29 to trade union representatives.[2] Women constituted about 10 percent of the legislature’s membership.[2] An Organisation of African Unity observer team concluded “that the overall exercise was an important step towards democratization and that it was conducted in a conducive atmosphere and in a satisfactory manner.”[2] Political parties that boycotted the elections had a decidedly different view.[2]
