South Sudan Leader to Run for President against Bashir

Sudan’s first Vice President Salva Kiir, who is also the leader of the country’s semi-autonomous South, will run for president against incumbent Omar al-Bashir in national polls next year, his party announced Sunday. Yasir Arman, a senior official of Kiir’s Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), told journalists that the party had decided to nominate its leader to contest the election after discussions lasting several days. The SPLM joined Bashir’s government in 2005 after waging a 21 year insurgency against it, and is due to vote on whether to secede in 2011. [PE]