Sudan court cancels results in Red Sea constituency
May 15 2010 (KHARTOUM) – A Sudanese court cancelled the results of election in an eastern Sudan constituency where the rigging had been proved by a widely circulated video posted to YouTube last month.
Last April, a video was posted to YouTube showing National Elections Commission (NEC) staff filling out the ballots and putting them inside the boxes leading opposition to blast the authorities and emphasize that is solid proof over the unfairness of the polls which concluded last month.
The electoral board officials at the time dismissed the video as fabricated and rejected calls for investigation before later reversing its position upon receiving a challenge from an unidentified party.
The National Supreme Court admitted today an appeal filed by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and decided to cancel the victory of Mohamed Taher Mohamed Al-Amin, a candidate of the National Congress Party and ordered to rerun the election.
The cancelled election concerns a seat of the Red Sea state assembly.
The first multi-party elections in the country since 24 years were marred by delay and irregularities. The opposition also accused the ruling NCP of rigging the northern Sudan elections and manipulating its outcome.
Last week, the Carter Center, the major international elections monitoring body, issued a statement today saying that the vote tabulation process in Sudan “was chaotic and lacked transparency” casting further doubts on the credibility of the first multi-party elections held in the country since 1986.
(ST)