Bashir softens tone on elections delay, SPLM rejects request for army ballot escort

March 23, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir today appeared to tone down his position on delaying the elections by saying that if that was to happen no broad based government would be formed as opposition parties have demanded.

Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) said that Bashir in an address to retired army and police figures blasted the opposition saying they have failed to garner any public support during the elections campaign implying that this is why they are requesting a postponement.

“When the party leaders felt they do not have acceptance [among the people] they started demanding the postponement of the elections and challenging the impartiality of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), although they took part in its selection and agreed to its membership” Al-Bashir said.

He stressed that if elections are moved up then the current government formation will remain until after elections take place.

Yesterday, the Sudanese president gave a stern warning to foreign election monitors threatening to expel them if they call for delaying the polls scheduled for April 11th. The warning appears directed at the US based Carter Center which last week called for a slight delay in elections because of logistical and procedural issues.

The NEC deputy chairman Ahmed Abdullah said “the Carter Center relies on false information that did not come from us,” and insisted the elections would take place on April 11 as planned.

But Bashir had tougher words to the US based elections watchdog.

“We brought these organizations from outside to monitor the elections, but if they ask for them to be delayed, we will throw them out……..any foreigner or organization that demand the delay of elections will be expelled sooner rather than later ” he said.

“We wanted them to see the free and fair elections, but if they interfere in our affairs, we will cut their fingers off, put them under our shoes, and throw them out,” he added.

Last week 17 opposition parties pushed a memo to the presidency requesting that April elections be postponed until next November in order to allow for major reforms in a number of laws primarily relating national security and media. They gave the government until Thursday to respond positively or else face the possibility of boycotting the elections.

The First Vice President Salva Kiir and the chairman of Sudan people Liberation Movement (SPLM) has formally requested that the memo be discussed during the presidency meeting on Thursday with Bashir and 2nd Vice President Ali Osman Taha.

In a related issue the SPLM revealed that Kiir has rejected a request by Taha and NEC chairman Abel Alier to have the Northern army transport voting slips to the south.

The United Nations was due to transport the ballots by helicopter around the war-ravaged south but Bashir’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has delayed the pilots’ visas, a U.N. source and opposition party officials told Reuters.

“They [the NCP] are sabotaging the coming of the U.N. pilots. They want to control the whole election process,” said Yasir Arman, the SPLM candidate for the national presidency.

Arman said that Taha, had asked to allow the army to transport the ballots by air to and around the south, which has few roads.

“Salva declined to accept that and then Abel Alier [NEC chair] wrote a letter with the same request, which shows the coordination between the NEC and the NCP,” Arman added.

The U.N. source, who declined to be named, said the visa problem was eventually resolved but that the U.N. was aware of the NEC request to allow the northern army to transport the ballots. “It didn’t make any sense and we made that clear in our discussions,” the source added.

The NEC told Reuters its letter was a contingency plan but that the United Nations was now on track to transport the ballot papers to the south.

“There was a contingency plan that if we could not find someone to move to the south then we may have asked the military to help by availing helicopters,” deputy NEC head, told Reuters. “This is now not needed”.

The development adds to opposition skepticism on the impartiality of the elections commission.

This month, a row has erupted over the process of awarding the bid for printing the executive posts ballots for the April elections which opposition says it opens the door for fraud since it was supposed to be printed abroad but a last minute decision assigned it to a local print house belonging to the ruling NCP.

This would lead to duplicate papers and ballot box stuffing, opposition said, but the NEC dismissed the complaint saying that the decision was made because of time constraints.

It is not clear if opposition parties will actually take the bold step of boycotting particularly after the Popular Congress party (PCP) led by Hassan Al-Turabi announced that he is against this idea.

One observer told Sudan Tribune said the SPLM might allow its Northern sector to decide to boycott the national presidency and legislative elections while the ex-Southern rebel group would be allowed to run in South Sudan polls to maintain its dominance.

(ST)