Yasir Arman

By Fatma Naib in Africa on April 7th, 2010
An Umma party supporter carries a banner which reads "boycott" in Arabic
The last 24 hours have proven to be the most stressful since the Al Jazeera crew arrived in Khartoum to cover the multi-party elections scheduled on April 11.
We and other media outlets were invited to a press conference at the National Elections Commission [NEC] headquarters on Tuesday.
As we arrived we were told that Scott Gration, the US special envoy to Sudan had just left. We waited in the blistering sun for over an hour before Al-Hadi Mohammed Ahmed, member of the NEC announced that the elections will go ahead as scheduled.
I couldn't help but think that in this roller coaster of an election, Ahmed's announcement should come as some relief for the nearly 16 million eligible voters.
By Fatma Naib in Africa on April 5th, 2010
Celebrating Easter at the Virgin Mary Church in Khartoum

This is an exciting time for the Sudanese people. For the first time in 24, years they will have the opportunity to vote in the country's first multi-party elections.

Although opposition parties, including those from southern Sudan, had announced over the weekend that they would withdraw from the electoral process, the National Elections Committee announced that the polls would go ahead as planned on April 11-13.

On Saturday, Al Jazeera's Sudan coverage team departed Doha to Khartoum; from there they will also deploy to Darfur and Juba.

To my surprise, the plane to Khartoum was half empty, but I did meet a Sudanese woman on board who was striking, both in presence and appearance - she was wearing trousers!

We spoke about Sudan and her hopes for her country.

I learnt she worked for the UN and was particularly interested in women's rights.

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