ANSD : Presidents can’t be changed via social media: Bashir

SAT 20 - 4 - 2024

Date: Feb 1, 2019
Source: The Daily Star

Presidents can’t be changed via social media: Bashir

KHARTOUM: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Thursday mocked his opponents’ use of social media platforms to mobilize protesters against his three-decade rule, saying that Facebook and WhatsApp can’t replace presidents. Organizers of the anti-government protests that have rocked Sudan for weeks, have made routine use of social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter to get out the crowds.

“Changing the government or presidents cannot be done through WhatsApp or Facebook,” Bashir told a televised rally attended by hundreds of loyalists in the eastern town of Kassala.

“It can be done only through elections. It’s only the people who decide who will be the president.”

Activists have extensively documented the protests and have flooded social media with footage of clashes with security forces.

The demonstrations have been spearheaded by the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, which issues regular online announcements of forthcoming rallies, using the hashtags #Sudan_cities_uprise or #Just_Fall.

Other hashtags such as #SudanRevolts and #SudanUprising have also helped build momentum, amassing hundreds of tweets and retweets by the hour.

The Sudanese government has sought to curtail the use of social networks, activists and analysts say.

Internet users have reported difficulties accessing Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp since the early days of the protests.

As Bashir was speaking in the remote town, the SPA called for fresh protests across several Sudanese cities.

Sudanese police fired tear gas at crowds of demonstrators in the capital, witnesses said.

Protesters also gathered in several villages in Jazeera state, south of the capital, witnesses said.

Sudan has been rocked by near daily anti-government protests since Dec. 19, in which rights groups say at least 45 people have been killed. The government puts the death toll at 30.

Meanwhile, Bashir said his country was reopening its border with Eritrea, which has been shut for about a year.

Sudan closed the border in early January 2018, after Bashir announced a six-month state of emergency in the regions of Kassala and North Kurdufan to help combat the trafficking of weapons and other foodstuffs.

“I announce here, from Kassala, that we are opening the border with Eritrea because they are our brothers and our people. Politics will not divide us,” Bashir said in televised remarks before scores of supporters in the town of Kassala, near the border in eastern Sudan.

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