Thu, 15 Apr 2010
alalam

Sudan's ruling party has said it is prepared to invite opposition parties into a coalition government as the African nation's general elections entered the last day of voting on Thursday.

Ghazi Salaheddin, an adviser to President Omar al-Bashir, said that his party, if victorious, would invite other parties to join the government.

"This is a critical moment in our history," Salaheddin said. "We are facing an important decision like self-determination in the south and we would like to garner as much support and as much consensus as we can."

The elections, which began Sunday, had to be extended by two days through Thursday due to problems with ballot deliveries and voter registration.

The African Union on Wednesday said there were no major problems with the poll and praised the peaceful nature of the vote.

Analysts say there is unlikely to be any significant problem around the election, but warned that any delay to a January 2011 referendum on independence for Southern Sudan, which was agreed in the 2005 peace deal that ended the north-south war, could lead to problems.