NEC trashes appeals against gubernatorial results in 3 Southern Sudan states

June 18, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudan’s independent National Elections Commission (NEC), which was charged with organization and supervision of the April elections, has rejected appeals raised against it by gubernatorial candidates from three southern states of Central Equatoria, Unity, and Western Equatoria.

Sudan conducted multiparty elections in April after 24 years of successive undemocratic rules in the country. The elections believed as the key to conduct of southern Sudan referendum scheduled to take place in January 2011, saw boycott of heavy weight northern political parties and withdrawal of the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) presidential candidate, accusing the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of pre-election fraud.

Alfred Ladu Gore, a gubernatorial candidate who went to the poll independently following failure to secure official nomination of his candidature by the southern ruling party, the SPLM, in January, protested elections results announced in favor of his main rival, SPLM official nominee, governor Clement Wani Konga.

Gore was contesting in Central Equatoria state while Angelina Teny was contesting in Unity state and Jemma Nunu Kumba, who was the official candidate of the SPLM and caretaker governor at the time of elections, contested to retain the gubernatorial seat in Western Equatoria state.

She was one of the official nominees declared to have lost gubernatorial race in what majority of the people in the state described as free and fair elections.
She among other officials including parliamentary aspirants who lost in the other states however insisted and went ahead to file their cases complaining against elections.

The national elections commission accepted their complaints and subsequently formed committees to thoroughly examine their cases using submissions from various polling stations in each state against particular case prior to declaration of the final and binding results.

So far, all the committees are reported to have completed their investigations and have allegedly come out in favor of all incumbent governors of the three southern states of Unity, Central and Western Equatoria.

Reacting to the declaration of the results favoring incumbent governors, Deng Achuil Kuany, an intellectual from Warrap state, said those who filed their cases wasted their time because it was clear that there was a political agreement
between the two parties to rig these elections before they were conducted.

“It was a complete waste of resources and time for those who complained against [the] results. Who does not know that these elections were rigged to complain and go to court again?” he asked.

(ST)