• by IPS Correspondents (khartoum)
• Thursday, April 15, 2010
• Inter Press Service

Polling will be postponed in some constituencies in Sudan where technical irregularities marred the voting process, the country’s electoral commission says.

The deputy chairman and spokesperson of the National Election Commission (NEC), Professor Abdalla Ahmed Abdalla said technical irregularities include the misprinting of party symbols of some candidates in a few constituencies.

'Polling will be postponed in some constituencies due to some mistakes that have occurred there. The commission is now classifying those constituencies and the commission will hopefully take 'final decisions' regarding the postponement of elections in some of these constituencies,' Abdalla said on Apr. 14.

He said problems were reported only in Khartoum State and these were 'limited' occurrences that happened at only three percent of the 821 polling stations in the area.

But the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) says the elections commission of with numerous violations of electoral procedure. These include problems with ballot papers, candidates appearing on papers in more than one constitutency; voters being unable to find their names on lists and election observers in at least one case being denied entry to voting centres.

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ACJPS executive director Osman Hummaida says irregularities are widespread.

'It’s happening throughout the country, it’s massive. There is no part of the country or constituency that has not been affected or where party symbols have not been omitted altogether or completely mixed up,' Hummaida said.

He added that the problems experienced during the elections could not be fixed.

'I think the problems are now beyond being rectified. People have already voted for parties and candidates using wrong symbols. There is no way that that could be rectified. There are other technical problems related to registration and access to voting centers including earlier problems involving political candidates’ rights to campaign.'

Voting in Sudan - the first democratic elections in 24 years - was extended by three days by the National Election Commission in response to widespread problems with voters' lists and ballot papers.

The elections are being boycotted by opposition parties citing continuing insecurity in the western region of Darfur and allegations of electoral irregularities by the President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party.

The ACJPS, which had called for postponement of the elections, also pointed out afresh that voters in vast areas of Darfur were unable to register to vote due to the presence of hostile security forces in towns and displaced persons camps.

Since conflict erupted in Darfur in 2003, more than 300,000 people have been killed and over one million people displaced by the conflict, according to United Nations estimates. Bashir has been indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Ummah Party, led by former Sudanese Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, which draws its main support from that region withdrew from the elections.

The most important opposition party, the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM), one of the parties to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended more than two decades of civil war between north and south and set up this election, withdrew its presidential candidate and has declined to contest elections outside of its stronghold in the south of the country.

Across Southern Sudan, ballot papers have arrived late or in insufficient quantities; in some places election officials have had to halt voting upon realising they were using the wrong papers. As Bashir heads for an expected victory, the attention of southern voters and leadership is directed towards the referendum on independence planned for January 2011.

A flawed election should prove no impediment to the dream of an independent South Sudan and will strengthen Bashir's position as he continues to ignore the ICC indictment against him. Where it leaves the people of Darfur and those northerners who want to see change in the North is less sure.

Abdalla said that there was a 'high turnout' of voters at all polling stations, though the NEC will only have official statistics on how the vote is progressing on Apr. 15.

However, when IPS visited polling stations at camps for Internationally Displaced People, turnout was poor. At the Jebel Aulia camps, situated 40 kilometres south of Khartoum, party agents said that of the over 22,000 registered voters, only 5,000 voted so far.

Voting ends on Apr. 15.

*Nalisha Kalideen and Jedi Ramalapa in Johannesburg contributed to this report.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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