Civil society groups organize referendum stakeholders, parties’ dialogue
By Julius N. Uma
September 16, 2010 (JUBA) — Sudan Domestic Election Monitoring and Observation Programme (SuDEMOP), is organizing a two-day stakeholders’ public dialogue aimed at bridging the existing information gap on Sudan’s forthcoming referendum between political parties, civil society and referendum administration members.
“We have realized that there is an information gap among the stakeholders. Therefore, we have invited people from different civil society organizations, referendum administration and representatives from the different political parties to participate in this joint discussions,” Lorna Merekaje, SuDEMOP’s Secretary General said yesterday.
The dialogue, based on the theme, “Information sharing is key”, will take place today (Friday) and tomorrow at Millennium hotel, Juba. During the event, stakeholders will, as part of the event, get to know each other and share information on their roles as well as the extent of their contribution toward ensuring a free, fare and credible referendum process.
“SuDEMOP believes the various stakeholders involved in the referendum preparation need to be given the opportunity to share information so that we can all effectively participate in this process,” Merekaje further remarked.
The two-day event comes barely a week after a similar meeting was organized by the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry in the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) to review progress so far made in the run-up to next year’s referendum.
Meanwhile, Southern Sudan Referendum Taskforce, an independent body set up by the government to oversee preparations for the long-awaited referendum has already embarked on its tasks, including preparing people for the referendum, post-referendum arrangements as well as providing technical guidance to government ahead of 2011.
In addition, plans are reportedly underway to set-up a security and information committee ahead of the January 2011 referendum. The information committee, consisting of a neutral team, will liaise with the media fraternity while that on security will train personnel who are required to be fair, impartial and neutral in their work during the referendum.
(ST).