China may send observers for Sudan’s April election

January 18, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – China, the international power with the largest economic stake in Sudan, may send a delegation to monitor the nationwide elections scheduled for April 2010.

The upcoming voting is meant to be Sudan’s first free and fair elections since General Omar Al Bashir took power on June 30, 1989.

Abdalla Ahmed Abdalla, Deputy Chairman of the National Election Commission, met recently with the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China Li Chengwen. They discussed “preparations for arrival of a Chinese delegation to participate in the monitoring of the coming elections in Sudan,” according to the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA).

Abdalla told SUNA that the commission welcomes the participation of China in the monitoring of the elections and its support to the election process in the country.

Reportedly the Chinese ambassador reviewed with Abdalla the technical measures for dispatching the team of Chinese observers.

Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party had said on January 5 that United Nations monitors will not be permitted in the country. There are, however, already some international observers allocated, including from those countries that witnessed to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, as well as from several other African nations.

Recently the US Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration called on the European Union to provide upwards of 300 elections monitors.

(ST)