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Khartoum: Sudan's parliament passed a new election law on Monday, paving the way for the first free ballot in 23 years to go ahead on schedule next year in Africa's biggest state.
However, opposition parties and south Sudanese former rebels said they only accepted the new law to avoid delaying the election and feared it could give an unfair advantage to President Omar Hassan Al Bashir's National Congress Party.
The election is to be held following a 2005 peace deal which ended the north-south civil war and changed the way wealth and power are shared.
The new election law will allow preparations to begin.
"This is truly a moment of transition -- this is an unprecedented piece of legislation," said the leader of the majority group in parliament, Ghazi Salaheddin.
"It injects a new spirit in the Sudan, it gives Sudanese hope that ultimately they could have some peace, some national consensus," he added.
However, the law was only approved reluctantly by the former southern rebels. Women from opposition parties protested against it outside parliament.
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