Sudan - Troubled Politics Ahead.

More than 20 Sudanese parties on Sept. 30 threatened to boycott the country's first multi-party elections in more than two decades in April 2010. The SPLM and opposition parties issued a joint statement at the end of a conference in Juba calling for the northern National Congress Party (NCP) to process a backlog of laws seen as key building blocks to the poll. Laws, including national security and media legislation, should be changed and passed by Nov. 30. Their statement said: "This is regarded as a condition for the participation of the forces participating in the conference in the next election".

The ultimatum raised already heightened tensions in the build-up to the vote, which was promised in the CPA. A mass boycott of the vote would undermine a key plank in the CPA and the planned 2011 referendum for the south. Any return to a north-south war would have a devastating impact on the country, its oil industry and the surrounding region.

Opposition parties at the conference included Umma, led by Sudan's last democratically-elected PM Sadeq A Mahdi, the Popular Congress Party headed by Islamist ideologue Hassan al-Turabi, and Sudan's Communists. They called for a South African-style truth and reconciliation body to heal wounds left over from Sudan's many conflicts and set out a series of steps to resolve the festering crisis in Darfur. They said parties should "ensure that those who have committed war crimes are brought to book before independent judiciary" a possible reference to the ICC's warrant to arrest President Bashir on charges of atrocities in Darfur. Bashir heads the NCP. The 2005 CPA formed a coalition government between the NCP and the SPLM, with the majority of parliamentary seats going to the northern party. But relations between the former foes have been troubled and armies from both sides have clashed in contested border areas since the CPA. The SPLM accuses Khartoum of obstructing the roll out of the CPA, particularly its referendum, by delaying necessary legislation.