UNMIS rejects allegations on ballots printing in Sudan
March 14, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The United Nations mission in Sudan (UNMIS) dismissed as “unfounded” allegations leveled against it by the Umma Reform and Renewal Party (URRP) suggesting that the Mission’s Chief Electoral Affairs Officer Ray Kennedy has been complicit in the improper process of granting bids to companies that is printing election ballots.
The URRP leader Mubarak Al-Fadil had expressed concern over alleged switching the process of printing voting slips from abroad to presses inside Sudan that belong to the NCP — a move they would lead to duplicate papers and ballot box stuffing.
Al-Fadil said in a statement this week that the National elections committee (NEC) acknowledged this flawed process with the consent of Ray Kennedy, Chief Electoral Affairs Officer for the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).
“This requires investigation from the UN Secretary General on the actions of the UN official and his contribution towards fraud. We will submit a complaint to the UN Secretary General based on the response of the [NEC] commission memo”
Last week, the opposition parties submitted a memorandum of protest regarding reforming the rules set by the commission on the campaigning. he parties say that new rules published by the NEC meant that they have to give 72 hours notice for rallies held inside their own party premises — and had to ask police for permission to meet outside. It also brought up the issue of the voting slips.
The NEC dismissed the memo in a formal response asserting its a neutral body counting an example where the government asked for breaking up the elections but they rejected it and when they overruled NCP challenges on drawing geographical constituencies.
The commission said a bid for printing the voting slips was advertised and two Sudanese companies secured it and that due to time constraints one set of the cards was diverted from a Slovenian company to a Sudanese one stressing that at each step this process was made with the participation of UNMIS elections office.
But UNMIS insisted that the decision on voting slips is one taken by the appropriate Sudanese agencies.
“The decision to print ballots inside Sudan for executive offices, which include presidential and governors’ elections, was taken by NEC on its own initiative and subsequently communicated to UNDP and UNMIS. The UNMIS Chief Electoral Affairs Officer subsequently recommended to NEC that arrangements should be put in place to ensure that non-partisan observers and party agents had the opportunity to observe and ensure the integrity of this printing process inside Sudan”.
“UNMIS Spokesperson would like to reiterate that the role of the Mission and its Electoral Assistance Division is restricted to providing technical assistance and limited logistical support within its capabilities when requested to do so. This does not involve making substantive decisions about any aspect of the electoral process. Such decisions are left in their entirety to the NEC and other stakeholders in Sudan as an internal Sudanese matter”.
Opposition figures claim that the NEC is paying four times the cost to print the ballots through a Sudanese company as compared to the Slovenian company.
The general elections scheduled for April, will be the first multi-party polls since 1986 but opposition parties have already accused the NCP of seeking to rig the votes in its favor.
(ST)
Gatwech
UNMIS rejects allegations on ballots printing in Sudan
This so-called UNMIS is a good-for-nothing mission in Sudan. They don’t even protect civilians when under attacks. Now they are denying what is welknown pre-rigging by NCP. It is known that NCP has already registered 10 million fake names, some from telephone companies. NCP is now printing in Sudan ballots which it can fillout with those 10 million names of false or ghost voters before the elections even begin.
Just postpone that good-for-nothing elections and concentrate on the conduct of referendum in January 2011.
Ajak Yak Giet...
UNMIS rejects allegations on ballots printing in Sudan
The UN Secretary General is Ban Ki moon who don’t want secession or referendum in Sudan and how do you think UNMIS can act…They support whatever that would make Sudan one state country and indeed UNMIS will allow production of ballons papers in the country such that NCP wins elections…A clear message to UNMIS is that,whether they like it or not,secession is guaranteed and must be done…SPLA OYEEEE!!! NEW SUDAN OYEEEE!!!
Time1
UNMIS rejects allegations on ballots printing in Sudan
The opposition is just bankrupted and not ready for the elections, first of all it is not the job of the UN to print election papers, UN is only giving logistical support to the election process, so this accusation against UN byt he Umma party and other opposition is all baseless. secondly the NEC is made up of all the different representatives, but some of the opposition representatives are the ones who are ignoring their demands because they know the northern opposition does not have a clear election program or support, so they should blame themselves.
The northern oppostition thinks that peace can be signed with Darfur rebels then the people in Darfur will vote for them and that will give them the a big number in the elections, but that is a wrong calculation.