Sudan faces tremendous election challenge – UN

August 5, 2009 (KHARTOUM) -– Sudan faces a complex challenge in holding its first multi-party polls in two decades, warned the head of the UN Electoral Affairs Division in Sudan.

Sudan in April 2010 would hold general elections that are a major milestone in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. In accordance with its mandate the UN mission in Sudan is tasked with the support of the electoral process but the responsibility for planning, organizing, and conducting these elections rests with the National Elections Commission (NEC).

UNMIS Chief Electoral Affairs Officer, Ray Kennedy, highlighting the tremendous difficulties facing the NEC said “size and physical landscape of the country, together with weak infrastructure in large parts of the county, would present a challenge for any election management body.”

He added that polling for six offices at the same time – President of the Republic, President of the Government of Southern Sudan, state governors, the National Assembly, the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly, and State Assemblies – along with different elections taking place in different parts of the country is a complex task.

Further he stressed that “the time pressures that the NEC is under with the election law being passed two and a half years late and the establishment of the NEC itself taking far longer than envisioned in the CPA and in the National Elections Act.”

“Together, all of these factors make these elections some of the most complex and challenging on record,” he underlined.

UNMIS has over 100 staff on the ground, with teams in Khartoum, El Fasher (capital of North Darfur), and each of the 10 states of Southern Sudan, noted Mr. Kennedy. He added that by late September, election support teams will also be established in each state in the north in response to the NEC’s request for support in all of Sudan’s 25 states.

“Both UNMIS and UNAMID are working with the police to develop and implement training programs on election security. Our colleagues in UNDP are providing support to the process by managing funds from donor countries and purchasing some of the materials required for voter registration and the elections.”

“And we are working with our colleagues in UNIFEM and the Mission’s Gender Unit to ensure that women are informed about and engaged in the electoral process,” he added.

Asked whether the SPLM rejecting of the census results would delay the electoral process, Kennedy said “On the issue of the census results, what I would say is that we do face a very tight timeframe. Anything that potentially delays any part of that timeframe could have an impact on when the elections are held.”

Reacting to remarks by Sudanese Presidential Assistant Nafi Ali Nafi who rejected the participation of “unfriendly countries” in the electoral monitoring, the UNMIS official said the UN provides only “technical assistance to the NEC.” The UN “has no role in monitoring the process. Monitoring is the function of party agents on the one hand and both international and domestic observers on the other hand.”

Kennedy disclosed that after a request from the Sudanese electoral board to assist them with logistics, the UNMIS has asked for additional helicopters to help move registration materials, voter education materials, ballots, and ballot boxes around the country and we are awaiting approval of that request,” he said.

“According to our calculations, we could be asked to assist with the transportation of 7.5 million kilograms of election material.”

(ST)