Vilified by many in the West for hosting al Qaeda in the 1990s and for alleged war crimes in Darfur, he oversaw South Sudan's secession in 2011.

The 71-year-old has proved to be a cunning political operator.

While indicted twice by the International Criminal Court, he has strengthened his hand at home and abroad.

Parliament granted him greater powers last year and recent diplomatic successes have left him riding high.

Sudan helped broker a deal between Egypt and Ethiopia in March over a dispute about the sharing of waters from the Nile.

He is virtually unopposed in the elections as the 15 other candidates are little-known and most opposition parties are boycotting the polls.

He has still toured the country giving speeches, dancing and waving his trademark cane, apparently unaffected by two knee operations last year.

Sporting a thick moustache, the career soldier is well known for his populist touch, insisting on being close to crowds and addressing them in colloquial Sudanese Arabic.

Bashir, who has two wives and no children, was born in 1944 in Hosh Bannaga to an agricultural family, in Sudan's Arab heartland north of Khartoum.

He entered the military at a young age, rising through the ranks and joining an elite parachute regiment.

He fought alongside the Egyptian army in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

In 1989, then a brigade commander, he led a bloodless coup against the democratically elected government.