Sudanese Diasporas petition over ID for voter registration
By Ngor Arol Garang
November 15, 2009 (JUBA) — The Southern Sudanese living abroad have petitioned the National Election Commission over valid Identification Card for voter registration.
Most of the Sudanese living abroad particularly those who left from refugee camps in neighboring countries for resettlement and/or studies expressed concerns saying they have no passports or national identification documents which are required for registration.
“It is better our work IDs with witness as it is recognize by 2008 election act be accepted for registration,” they requested.
In letters of complaint seen by Sudan Tribune from Southern students in Kenya to Sudan embassy and SPLM chapter chairpersons in European countries to United Nations Development Programs, the UNDP, they expressed concerns and asked NEC to allow the Diaspora use other IDs than the Sudanese passport to register in the electoral lists.
According to them, they stated that Sudanese embassies across the world restrict voter registration Sudanese to Diaspora members possessing national passport, identification card and not the alternate. This is unfair practice by the NEC as it limits selection of registration centers worldwide, the statements add.
They also requested for extension of time incase excluded countries are included from talks currently underway between the parties with intention to resolve inclusion of countries hosting good number of Sudanese people.
“We are requesting for extension of registration time because registration centers for all of Western Europe, the Sudanese Embassy in Brussels has not started the process yet while we are left with only 19 days,” said Regina Gai, SPLM Chair in Norway, Oslo in a statement addressed to UNDP.
Similarly, Andruga Duku, a government of Southern Sudan Principal Liaison officer to Kenya while responding to the student presentation said that the issue at hand is indeed a problem not only to South Sudanese but the Darfurians as well.
“The exclusion of Sudanese in the Sub-Saharan African countries from that the registration affects not only South Sudan, but Darfur as well. For example most people who fled Darfur took refuge in Chad and Libya,” he said.
Registration for elections is a right for all citizens and unless the election is intended for North Sudan only, the list presented by the NEC is discriminatory and not acceptable; he stressed adding the election is obviously not going to be free and fair as situation indicates.
The National Election Commission (NEC) of Sudan earlier this week confirmed acceptance of additional countries to the previous list for registration and voting to enable Sudanese abroad to participate in the upcoming elections next year.
The initial list includes Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Sultanate of Oman, Bahrain, the UK, Belgium (for all Western Europe) and Washington, New York, Los Angles for the USA.
Countries newly agreed upon for inclusion by the two parties in Africa includes Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa as well as and Malaysia, said Abel Alier, NEC chairman, adding discussions are underway to add other neighboring countries.
(ST)
Mr Famous Big_Logic_Boy
Sudanese Diasporas petition over ID for voter registration
Don’t you have Sudanese or South Sudan community in those abroad countries where you are living? well if you do then what is hard about registration. You know each other who is from South and who is from north so what is hard about this case. Dumb you are trying to make things worse, simple issue but making it worse will never help. For instance if am asked to go and find dinkas in kakuma, i will select them all one by one. Their ugly faces and missing teeth makes it easier for me to tell who is nuer, murle, Equatorian and shilluk. Use common sense and physical characteristic to identitfy who is who.
James Okuk Solomon
Sudanese Diasporas petition over ID for voter registration
Deceptions, lies and incompetence has led and will always lead to SPLM defeat in many issues pertinent to politics in the Sudan.
Now the SPLM is pleading with the NEC to allow the GoSS Laison offices abraod to register the Southern Sudanese abroad for 2010 elections but the electoral law has knock out this plea. This reminds me of what I wrote in the past that the GoSS Laisson Offices abraod are not diplomatic missions for the Sudan; they are only coordination offices for specific issues (especially economy and culture) pertaining to GoSS only and not all the Sudan. That is why the responsbility of voter registeration and elections in foreign countries have been given to Sudan Embassies and Consultates because these represent the whole Sudan.
There will never be any legal ground to permit the GoSS Laisson offices abroad to register the Sudanese voters. Even Mr. Ezekiel Lol in Washington D.C and Mr. Duku in Nairobi have to go to the Sudan Embassies carrying the required valid documents (Nationality ID, Passport, Residence Permit, etc.) if they want to be voters in 2010 elections. Failure to produce the required valid documents will automatically disqualify them from registering now and voting in 2010.
Now the real truthful verdict is out: the GoSS Ministry of Regional Cooperation and its laisson brances abroad is not equivalent to GoNU Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its Embassies and Consulates abraod as the SPLM use to deceive Southerners.
That is why it is very important for Southerners to take it seriously from now that they need to vote for independece in 2010 refererndum so that they can establish South Sudan Ministry of Foreign Affairs with all the diplomatic and consular privileges and immunities abroad.
When some of us use to challenege our people in the diaspora that they are not Sudanese de jure anymore, we were marked as anti-diapora when our motive was to sensitize them to acquire the Sudanese valid legal documents like what many Northerners in Diaspora do. Now the reality has come out that the Sudanese electoral law has disqualified most of our people in diaspora because of lack of valid Sudanese legal documentation.
Any way let the Southerners in Diaspora take this as a serious defeat for April 2010 elections. But also let them take it as a serious challenge and a lesson to acquire the needed valid Sudanese documention in near future for Refererndum registeration and voting. It is said whoever has been rattled by a snake will fear a rope afterwards.
Let Al-Bashir and NCP win the Presidency of the Sudan this time but let this also be a lost to the North in the referendum in 2011 where Southers are going to vote overwhemingly for independece and freedom of South Sudan.