Voters in Sudan’s upcoming elections uncertain over existence of names
By James Gatdet Dak
March 22, 2010 (JUBA) – Registered voters for the upcoming April general elections in the largest African country, Sudan, have expressed uncertainty over the fate of their names, in the register lists, following reports that tens of thousands are already missing from the preliminary exhibitions.
According to Miraya FM radio, the Secretariat of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Eastern Equatoria state has already claimed that about 11,000 names are missing from the voter list in the state.
The party criticized the State High Elections Committee for not publishing voters’ names.
The SPLM Deputy Chairman in the State, Felix Okanyi Remijo, said that people do not know their voting status because their names have not been displayed.
NEC was supposed to publish the final list of names, for confirmation, in their respective locations or stations from which such names were registered.
However, the Chairman of the State High Elections Committee, Joseph Ojuko, refuted the claims, saying they had displayed the names in the first phase of exhibition, but admitted that NEC has not sent the final list of voters from Khartoum to the states.
This has prompted fears of uncertainty among registered voters on whether they would find their names in the lists on polling days, or would be suddenly told that they were missing and thus denied the right to vote.
“I don’t trust that Khartoum-based National Elections Commission [NEC] which seems to be under the control of the NCP [National Congress Party]. They may remove from the list tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of names from the South because Bashir is convinced that most of the votes in the South will go to the SPLM,” said a potential voter.
“Or they may target selected areas or counties which they think are SPLM strongholds by scrapping thousands of names from such places,” he continued.
Another observer however had a different suspicion. “The SPLM-dominated Southern Sudan High Committee or State High Elections Committees might have also acted in that way [NCP’s way] and might have removed names from the voters’ list in areas that serve as strongholds for local political rivals they don’t favor,” said John Deng, resident in Juba, who specifically cited rivalry between official SPLM candidates and independent candidates who were also their former colleagues in the party.
“This is very serious because I can be denied the right to vote on April 11 if my name disappeared from the final list despite having my voting slip. They may think my voting slip is a fake one,” he added.
Sudanis gearing up itself for the conduct of the first nearly comprehensive post-war presidential and parliamentary elections in April. More than 13 million registered voters are expected to participate and choose between 12 presidential candidates among other executive and legislative contesters at different levels of government. This is to be followed in January 2011 by the conduct of referendum on possible independence of the South.
(ST)