20100124

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Repression of political opponents in both Sudan's north and semi-autonomous south is undermining the prospects for Sudan's first democratic elections in 24 years, Human Rights Watch said on Sunday.

After decades of north-south civil war, a 2005 peace deal shared power and wealth and enshrined democratic reform in Africa's largest country. It outlined elections set for April as well as a southern Sudanese referendum on independence in 2011.

But delays in implementing the deal have fuelled mistrust between the north and south. A law forced through last month by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's dominant National Congress Party giving Sudan's feared intelligence services wider powers has further compounded matters.

"The Khartoum government is still using its security forces to harass and abuse those who speak out against the ruling National Congress Party," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch. "That is no environment for holding free, fair and transparent elections."

On Sunday in the latest of numerous accusations against the NCP, opposition presidential candidate Mubarak al-Fadil said national security forces had confiscated papers endorsing him from a party member in West Darfur.

Another opposition Umma Party parliamentary nominee Mohamed Abdallah Adouma said he was refused permission to hold a political forum in West Darfur.

"Unless emergency law in Darfur is lifted there cannot be an election there," al-Fadil said of Sudan's western region, now in its seventh year of a separate rebellion.

A national security source in West Darfur denied both charges and said political parties were free to hold forums.

"We would go to listen to their views," the source said.