Sudan SPLM reiterates rejection of census, alleges fraud
June 6, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – The main partner in the government of national unity in Sudan accused the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of rigging the results of the fifth census conducted last year.
Alor said the NCP is in control of the state bodies and the decision making process with complete absence of the SPLM.
He further said that the ruling party manipulated the census numbers and disclosed that the SPLM position was communicated to president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.
Alor blasted the NCP saying they had been saying since the Naivasha accord that South Sudan is one fifth of the population.
The Central Bureau of Statistics said that the total of Sudan’s population is 39,154,490, with 8,260,490 living in the south or 21 percent of the national population.
The fifth Sudan Population and Housing Census, conducted from April 22 to May 6, 2008 is considered crucial in the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
The census will help decide how wealth and power are ought to be shared in Sudan.
SPLM officials in the past have said that they estimate South Sudan to account for a third of Sudan’s population and that they will not accept figures less than that.
Alor said that the cabinet last Thursday was informed of the census results but did not make any decisions despite statements by its spokesperson. He stressed that the endorsement is up to the presidency which included SPLM chairman Salva Kiir.
He expressed surprise at the population results of South Darfur which showed a 92% increase from last census and claimed that it includes Arab tribes resettled from West Africa and should therefore be excluded as they are “not Sudanese nationals”.
On the issue of Southerners living in the North, Alor said that he had proposed moving them and that committees were formed for that purpose and found their numbers to be 3.9 million contrasting the official figures of 518,000.
The Sudanese foreign minister said he expected the dispute to be resolved through dialogue between the NCP & SPLM. He suggested using previous census results to determine electoral constituencies.
However, last month NCP official Mandoor Al-Mahdi said that election law has determined that constituencies will be based on population.
Alor criticized Al-Mahdi statements saying the NCP fears the SPLM in terms of popularity in the elections. Moreover he said that the electoral commission cannot begin dividing constituencies until the dispute is resolved.
But a member of the NCP leadership committee Qutbi Al-Mahdi closed the door in front of any possible compromise saying the census was monitored by international observers with participation of the SPLM.
He described the SPLM position as ‘political comedy’ saying “the numbers don’t lie”.
Al-Mahdi also rejected allegations of NCP controlling power saying the SPLM is dominating in the South and violated freedoms and rights of Muslims and restricted political activities.
He urged the SPLM not to violate the CPA for fear of the upcoming 2010 elections.
(ST)
KingJared
Sudan SPLM reiterates rejection of census, alleges fraud
SPLM should conduct its own headcount in order to know the actually the population of south rather than arguing about underestimation. To challenge the NCP, you need to know the total numbers of people in south. North won’t agree and accept the populaton of south to rise. We know that the polticians consider the popuplation as a main point to determine their success in election. NCP cannot be sincere to SPLM in whatever ways unless SPLM should plays its own trick to fool NCP. Politic is a dirty game or monkey business if SPLM does not know it. Did SPLM know the population in the south? Is SPLM ready to make headcount? People need to open their eyes and look at the things a head
Cheers.
John-Anya-Anya
Dinka Aliap Chawul
Sudan SPLM reiterates rejection of census, alleges fraud
The rejections of these census results by SPLM was not something new to me because NCP was never believes in having peace with their SPLM colleague till 1997-2002 when SPLA got many miltary victories over Arabs-led government of Sudan.If NCP propose and SPLM oppose the census results then what`s these census results about? Who wants to benefits from these results? i can say NCP wants to corrupt these results so that it can uses these money to buy more modern weapons from Iran,China,Russia,N.Korea etc.To let them fights S.Sudan, rewards those Janjaweed for a well done(killings,raping and displacing of innocents Darfuriz) jobs in Darfur,blindfools some money greedy Sudanese to supports Bashir on ICC warrants and the early plans to rigs 2010 elections.I`m sure those are logics behinds recent policies by NCP.But they`ll failed if South declare its independent unilaterally before 2011.
Michael Biphal thot
Sudan SPLM reiterates rejection of census, alleges fraud
it has become clear that the south population is 8.2 million what do we have in mind to tackle this since south Gov.t has reject the result to me the figures as read out is correct only that the goverment of southern sudan didn’t took initiative when census was conducted because most town and rural areas was not counted during the census. the result could have been reject since the south govermnet realized that the exrecise was not done to the expected .our goverment seatback as if the work was for the census recruited staff forgetting what is lying ahead of census result would affect the all population and the top goverment offical were informed when CPA was signed that the result of the census is what is going to be use for powersharing ,wealth sharing ,constituencies demarcation
However, the goverment could have mobilized the citizen earier before census was conducted to let them be aware of why census is going to be conducted in the country the other thing was enumeration materials for census staff were not enough these like forms and even the number of staff that were employed were less compared to number of EAs they were to enumerate.i witness this because i work as census supervisor there were good number of E.As that were not covered likewise forms finished before the work was completed these are the thing goverment of southern sudan could have talk about . southern sudan population is even more than what you are expecting to be the one just because the census wasn’t done enough to covered every thing and every body was not included but leaders thing like they didn’t care at first.
now do we go accepting it is the worse and rejecting is even the worse one because that would be CPA violation and to accept would present the polling centers where there would be long queue as you know election is only 12 hours from 6.00am to 6.00pm because the population would out numbered the ballot boxes and polling centers million of people would not vote then after that i thing you know the answer.