Bahr el Ghazal governor urges for immediate supply of voter registration materials

By Ngor Arol Garang

November 18, 2009 (MELUT) — The Governor of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, Major General Paul Malong Awan Anei, soon after arrival from scheduled inspection of voter registration centers for all five counties, urged for immediate supply of voter registration materials.

“My just concluded inspection of all centers shows that there is need for the National Election Commission (NEC) to urgently supply forms and other registration materials so registration process should resume in the state,” he said.

The governor who expressed his dissatisfaction reiterated that teams from different counties have been out of centers since Saturday 14.

“I visited several registration locations this week only to be constantly informed of lack of registration forms, why did the national election commission office supply small quantities to Aweil,” he posed

Reiterating call for additional days, he said this is necessary because registration teams were delayed by three training and one day of travel to centers, which according to him, should have been the first prior to the start of the official registration day which started on Sunday 1 country wide.

“We lost four days in the beginning and another five days after the start due to short supply of registration material and supplies,” he said stressed that these days need to given to us.

Another issue is the time; national election commission has extended registration time to 8:30 in the evening from 8:00 in the morning.

This works well in the north where most of the towns are electrified unlike in the South where most areas in rural villages becomes dark early before 6 o’clock in the evening, he explained. For this reason, I requested extension of time be considered in days in South Sudan, he adds.

(ST)