Sudanese opposition leaders reject military's snap election plan

Sudanese opposition leaders on Tuesday accused the country's ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) of a "coup" and criticised the council's plan to conduct early elections within nine months.

Omar al-Dukair, the Secretary General of the Sudanese Congress party, also said at a news conference in Khartoum that an attack on protesters by the armed forces was a "complete humanitarian crime".

"We refuse the call for an early election and we consider the statement of the military council conforms with the counter-revolution and is linked to the interests of the old regime," al-Dukair told reporters in Khartoum. 

"They want elections to be conducted in the presence of an inappropriate environment for a free and fair election."

Soldiers on Monday moved in to clear the demonstrators' main sit-in camp in the capital in a bloody crackdown which al-Dukair said had seen at least 30 people killed.

Al-Dukair accused the military of being "linked to the old regime" of Sudan's overthrown president Omar al-Bashir and said the early elections would not be conducted in a "free and fair" environment.

Madani Abbas Madani, a spokesperson for the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, referred to the TMC as the "coup council" and said it "stood against the aspirations of the Sudanese people".

Since the overthrow of al-Bashir, protest leaders and the military have been in discussions to decide the future of the country.

Talks stalled over the make up of a transitional council meant to run the country for three years before elections.