Former prime minister to return

Former Sudanese Prime Minister Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi plans to return to Sudan next week. He announced his plans to foreign journalists in Cairo on Wednesday. However, he said he would not participate in next month's parliamentary and presidential elections, which he called "a one-team football game", according to Reuters. He told journalists the elections were "a non-event" and that his opposition Ummah Party would boycott them. According to Mahdi, democracy should be restored to Sudan through negotiations, while and political mobilisation would serve to bring pressure to bear on the government. His return will end four years of exile. Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi was overthrown in 1989 in a military coup led by the current president, Umar al-Bashir. He spent almost seven years either in jail or under house arrest, then fled to Eritrea in December 1996.