Al-Bashir struggles to win in Darfur, Sudan for elections

However, the president faces a hostile population in elections that observers considered insufficiently legitimate.

Rebels in Darfur have called for a boycott of three days of voting, which begins Sunday. Many of the 2.5 million refugees who were expelled from their homes after years of war in the region have not registered to vote.

Various parties have withdrawn from the race after complaints that the al-Bashir”s government has manipulated the process.

Since 2003 this arid region has been the scene of a bloody conflict between the Arab-led government in Khartoum and rebels African ethnicity. At least 300,000 people have died and millions have been displaced from their homes in a war that has been marked by pro-government Arab militia atrocities against the inhabitants of villages in Darfur.

It was hoped that these elections throughout Sudan repaired at the conflict, as well as the war between north and south that hit Africa”s largest nation for decades.

The International Crisis Group, based in Brussels, warned in a pre-election report that a vote is likely to lead to unfair maneuver Darfur rebels.

Still, the party of al-Bashir in power is campaigning here more intense than in the capital, Khartoum.

There was election rallies on Thursday night, the last day of campaigning.

Hundreds of supporters came to hear speeches by local officials, who promised to research and development of a financial scandal in which many residents of El-Fasher lost money.