Former President John Agyekum Kufuor said, Monday, that the Africa Union did not favour any of the contesting political parties in the impending general elections in Sudan. The union’s interest was the smooth conduct of the elections to help return Africa’s largest country to peace and stability, former President Kufuor told a Press Conference at the Grand Holiday Villas in Khartoum, Sudan. Mr Kufuor, who arrived in Khartoum on Sunday as the head of a 50-member AU Observer Mission, was briefing the media after the first stakeholders meeting of the mission. “I should state from the onset that we are here as impartial and neutral election observers who do not owe any allegiance to any of the contending parties. “Our job is to observe the conduct of the elections in accordance with the AU’s Declaration Principles Governing Elections in Africa. “At the end of the elections, we are expected to determine if it was conducted in accordance with the constitution and laws of Sudan. “We will also determine the credibility of the whole electoral process in terms of the provision of a level playing field to all parties in their access to the media, movement and freedom of choice,” he said. The mission includes National Electoral Commissions, Members of the Pan-African Parliament, members of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the AU and Civil Society Organizations. The European Union, the Arab League and the Carter Centre, are among international bodies that have sent observer missions. Sudan goes to the polls from April 11 to April 13 for the first time in more than 25 years to elect a President and a 450-member National Assembly. Source: Frank Agyekum, Khartoum, Sudan