Sudan votes in elections set to extend Bashir's rule

Sudan is voting in general elections shunned by the opposition and expected to see the incumbent President Omar al-Bashir hold on to power for another five-year term. Voting began at 8am today and will continue for three days.

More than 13 million people have registered to vote at some 11 thousand polling stations across the country. Voting got off to a slow start, with mostly soldiers and elderly people showing up at locations visited by reporters.

At one of the polling stations in central Khartoum, the first person to vote, 61-year-old Saad Eldin Osman, said it is his duty to vote "for the nation’s future" and that he would cast his vote for Bashir. The president later voted at the same polling station, accompanied by ministers and his two wives.

The country's main opposition groups are boycotting the elections, in which 15 little-known candidates are challenging the incumbent.

ALJAZEERA