Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has insisted that the forthcoming elections will be "free and fair".

苏丹总统奥马尔·巴希尔坚持宣称，即将到来的总统选举会是“自由、公平”的。

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The withdrawal of so many parties is a serious blow to the poll's credibility

In a speech on the campaign trail（竞选游说之行） , Mr Bashir said the poll would be clean as it was "a religious duty".

Sudan's elections were intended to be the first multi-party polls since 1986, and pave the way for（为……做好准备） real democracy in Africa's largest country.

But several major opposition² parties have announced they will boycott³（联合抵制，拒绝参加） the polls, in protest at alleged⁴ rigging.

Only minor⁵ opposition parties are now taking part in northern areas, and the main party of South Sudan, the SPLM, is only contesting in the south.

A serious blow

The electoral process has been heavily criticised by international and local rights groups, as well as by parties opposed to the president.

The BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum says Mr Bashir dismissed（摒弃，开除） these criticisms, much as he swept aside the opposition's demand that the polls, scheduled for Sunday to Tuesday, be postponed⁶.

The president has been very active during the campaign, announcing new development projects in every town he has visited, our correspondent says.

"The elections will be fair and free and clean and exemplary（典范的，可效仿的） ," Mr Bashir told a gathering⁷ in northern Sudan.

"They will be clean because elections are a religious duty," he said in a speech broadcast on state television.

In contrast, the opposition parties have spent more time recently debating whether to run in the elections than in trying to convince the voters, our correspondent says.

Both of President Bashir's main rivals, Sadiq al-Mahdi of Umma and Yassir Arman of the former southern rebels, the SPLM, are boycotting⁸ the presidential election.

President Bashir's National Congress Party will perhaps face more of a challenge in the parliamentary and state elections.

But our reporter says the withdrawal of so many parties has dealt a serious blow to the credibility of these elections.

Some Sudanese activists⁹ believe the international community is pushing for these polls to take place, even if they are not fair, as the real priority is next January's referendum on possible southern independence.

The north-south civil war ended in 2005, with a deal for the SPLM to share power with Mr Bashir's party at the national level, while enjoying considerable autonomy（自治） in the south.

Some 1.5 million people died in the conflict between the mainly Muslim north and the south, where most people are Christian¹⁰ or follow traditional beliefs.