Sudan votes in elections set to extend Bashir's rule

Incumbent president expected to win another term in office as opposition boycotts polls.

Khartoum, Sudan  - Sudan is voting in 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 in the general and presidential elections began at 8am local time on Monday and will continue for three days.

More than 13 million people have registered to vote at some 11,000 polling stations across the country, but voting got off to a slow start, with mostly soldiers and elderly people showing up at locations visited by Al Jazeera.

At the St Francis School in central Khartoum, the first person to vote, 61-year-old Saad Eldin Osman,said it was his duty to vote "for the nations future" and that he would cast his vote for Bashir.

The 71-year-old president, who has been in power since June 1989, later voted at the same school, 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.

"I only see Bashir on TV and elsewhere. It doesn't feel like Bashir has any other contesting against him," Ali Adel Kheder, 19, told Al Jazeera, adding that he would not vote.

"The state TV and private channels are all pro-Bashir. I don't know who the candidates are and what their election programmes are."

Mohammed Khatm al-Haaj, 22, however, said it was important for him to exercise his constitutional right to vote.

"Those boycotting are hurting the country. We need national dialogue, but after the election," he said.

Another voter, a retired lieutenant army general, who did not give his name, said that people should vote even if they wanted to vote against the president.

"Boycotting is a negative and not proactive," he said. "We all need to contribute as citizens. You are free to choose whomever you want. Just vote."