Bashir, Kiir agree on measures to ensure timely conduct of referendum

August 29, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir held a meeting late on Sunday with his two Vice presidents Salva Kiir and Ali Osman Taha to discuss impediments facing the January 2011 referendum which threatens to delay the key vote.

The state run news agency (SUNA) said that the presidency adopted a number of decisions and measures to overcome all the obstacles facing the referendum commission which has yet to officially begin its work.

Under the referendum law, the final list of eligible voters should be drawn up by October 9, three months before the vote itself.

However, the commission has still not begun the laborious process of voter registration which is expected to take several weeks at least.

The presidency also invited the international community to contribute to the implementation of its obligations and commitments for the completion of the referendum and to participate in monitoring and ensuring a suitable environment for conducting it.

According to SUNA, the participants urged the acceleration of border demarcation process between north and south and established a joint political committee “to provide political and technical support” to the boundary commission.

Only four months before the referendum, the ruling Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) have not settled thorny post-referendum issues including nationality, national debt, water agreements and border demarcation.

The NCP said that no referendum will take place if the border demarcation is not complete but the SPLM rejects this condition.

Furthermore, the referendum commission has been deadlocked over the choice of a Secretary General which the SPLM insisted should be a Southerner. Later, the ex-Southern rebel group conceded the post under a deal brokered by U.S. special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration.

However, Omer Al-Sheik who was nominated for Secretary General post by the commission chief Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil officially declined the position meaning that a new search will have to be made for a replacement.

The independent Al-Ayaam newspaper published a statement from Al-Sheik outlining the circumstances surrounding his nomination and revealing that he has had reservations on key parts of the referendum law.

The veteran lawyer who worked in the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) said that he asked Khalil to drop his nomination in early July citing “political, racial and sectarian polarization” after Southerners objected to him assuming this position.

He also expressed fury over claims by the SPLM that he failed during his tenure at MINURSO and threatened to file a lawsuit against Southern members of the commission for smearing his reputation unless they make an apology. Al-Sheik said that the accusations demonstrate “blatant ignorance” by those who made them on the nature of the work he did in the UN.

The presidential adviser Salah Abdullah Gosh, said that the joint political committee filed a proposal to address the issue of appointing a Secretary General for the referendum commission and his deputy adding that this issue has been resolved.

Gosh said that the referendum commission could begin work immediately after establishing all rules and procedures to prepare for the vote. He pointed out that it was also decided that the technical committees are to resume their mission in demarcating the borders on the ground and matching maps.

Last month a report by 24 international humanitarian and human rights organisations warned that Africa’s largest nation was “alarmingly” unprepared for a vote in January.

(ST)