UPDATE 1-South Sudan party withdraws presidential candidate

Wed Mar 31, 2010 7:06pm GMT

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KHARTOUM, March 31 (Reuters) - South Sudan's leading party said on Wednesday it was withdrawing its candidate for the presidency in April elections.

"We decided that Yasir (Arman) should end his campaign for the presidency of the Republic," the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) vice-chairman Riek Machar told reporters.

Machar cited continued conflict in Darfur and electoral irregularities, adding the party would also boycott all levels of elections in Darfur.

Most analysts believe Arman would have been the favourite to compete with incumbent president Omar Hassan al-Bashir in the polls due to begin in April 11, the country's first multiparty elections in 24 years.

Some opposition groups had said elections would be a farce in Sudan's western Darfur region where clashes are still reported seven years after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government.

Opposition parties have complained of widespread fraud in the build-up to the elections and have also threatened to boycott the poll. (Reporting by Opheera McDoom, writing by Andrew Heavens)

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