Beshir wins Sudan polls

SUDAN: President Omar al-Beshir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, was on Monday declared winner of Sudan's first multi-party presidential election in more than two decades.

Beshir, who has long had troubled ties with the West, immediately pledged to respect the provisions of a Western-backed peace deal with southern rebels that ended Africa's longest-running civil war.

But his poll victory, 21 years after he seized power in a bloodless coup, was marred by opposition boycotts, allegations of fraud and questions from European monitors over the count's transparency. "The winner in the election of the president of the republic is Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Beshir from the National Congress Party," National Election Commission (NEC) chairman Abel Alier told reporters. Khartoum, AFP