RVI releases Arabic history of fraud in Sudan elections, warns of repeat in 2010

November 29, 2009 (WASHINGTON) – The Rift Valley Institute has released an Arabic translation of its previously published history of elections in Sudan, while also issuing a new warning that “the opportunity for a properly organized election may now be irretrievably lost.”

The Arabic is translated from an April 2009 report, “Elections in Sudan: Learning from Experience,” which had provided extensive historical research and argued that the stakes are very high in the upcoming voting.

RVI’s report concluded that multi-party national elections “have been striking moments of popular mobilisation… manifestations of a democratic popular idea of Sudanese identity” – despite a history of fraud and instability surrounding them. The upcoming balloting thus will mark a significant political event, even though Sudan has been ruled by an authoritarian government since 1989.

Sudan’s upcoming election is mandated by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. The election schedule has already been delayed from July 2009 to April 2010. Further delay, however, is more problematic due to the 2010 rainy season and the referendum of South Sudan in January 2011.

In the April report, the three RVI authors had warned of “calamitous organizational difficulties” confronting the national Electoral Commission. They appealed for international supporters to provide resources for elections preparations. But now in an update, one of those authors, Dr. Justin Willis, says that their recommendations have not been heeded.

He warns that “the call for urgent action on the part of the international community made in the RVI report in April – a call that was echoed by a number of other bodies – has not been answered.”

Dr. Willis says there is “a growing election crisis in Sudan” that could threaten “a breakdown of the whole CPA process”.

According to RVI’s report, elections held in Sudan during periods of authoritarian rule witnessed malpractice “in every conceivable sphere: control of the press, preventing candidates from standing, restricting campaigning, using state resources to support approved candidates, falsifying voters lists, intimidating voters at the polling station, stuffing ballot boxes, and straightforward ballot box switches.”

Sudanese are therefore inclined to distrust the electoral process. This factor poses a threat not only to the 2010 elections, but also to the 2011 referendum for South Sudan’s independence. Dr. Willis writes that “the elections are most unlikely to offer a useful practical rehearsal for the referendum – since voters’ experience is unlikely to be good, and poll staff are likely to have a difficult and disheartening time. Nor are they likely to create a sense of citizenship or enthusiasm for unity.”

Dr. Willis first presented this update in October to the UK Parliamentary Group on Sudan. Britain’s Department for International Development had provided the funding for his research. He is a Professor in History at the University of Durham, and immediate former Director of the British Institute In Eastern Africa. He is a specialist on the history of Sudan, and the history of elections in eastern Africa more widely.

The other two authors of the original report were Atta al-Battahani and Peter Woodward. The Arabic version is accessible in PDF format at : http://www.riftvalley.net/.

(ST)