US appears indecisive on supporting delay to Sudan vote

April 8, 2010 (WASHINGTON) — The US envoy at the UN Susan Rice today signaled that Washington may be open to moving back the elections in Sudan one day after the state department ruled out any support to that option.

“I think our view has been that if a very brief delay were decided to be necessary, and we thought that a brief delay would enable the process to be more credible, we would be prepared to entertain that,” Rice told reporters after a closed door briefing by UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy on Sudan’s first multiparty elections in more than two decades, set to begin on Sunday.

“There have been some significant impediments on the ground, restrictions on civil liberties, harassment of the media, reduction in the number of polling places, insecurity, an inability of many of the people, particularly in Darfur, to be able to register and participate,” she added.

On Wednesday the US State department assistant Secretary Philip Crowley in response to a question about why postponing the elections is not alternative said that the administration want to see Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) implementation “continue on schedule”.

The CPA signed 2005 ended the north-south war, setting in motion both the elections this month and a key vote next year on a referendum that could grant independence to the southern oil-rich and mainly Christian and animist region. Sudan is sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest oil producer.

“This election is part of that process. We understand that there are going to be problems. We understand that there are going to be flaws in this election. We understand that there – not every action that’s going on in Sudan is constructive. Scott is there continuing to work with the parties, continuing to work with the National Election Commission. I think we want to see a credible result” Crowley said.

Over the weekend the US special envoy Scott Gration gave his blessings to the NEC saying they gave him ” me confidence that the elections will start on time and they would be as free and as fair as possible”. His remarks angered US based activists groups and opposition parties in Sudan who accused him of favoring the ruling National Congress Party (NCP).

Susan Rice, who is known to differ with Gration on Sudan policy, was striking a different tone.

“Unfortunately, the trends on the ground are very disturbing,” she said. “That’s [election delay] obviously up to the authorities themselves, but the larger picture is that much is awry in this process, and that is a real concern,”.

Le Roy told reporters it will be up to the 18,000 Sudanese and 750 international election observers to assess the results, since the UN is only providing technical help as mandated by the Security Council.

“We continue to express some concerns regarding aspects of the electoral environment,” Le Roy said, adding that his office has stressed respect for political freedoms and equal access to the media.

The two largest parties in Sudan, the Umma Party and Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) have announced boycott to elections in most of the country casting doubt over the elections credibility.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Thursday he was disappointed by the boycotts. “I regret that some of the parties have decided not to participate,” he told reporters after he arrived in Khartoum to observe the voting.

Furthermore, yesterday the EU observer mission pulled out from Darfur citing concern over safety of its teams in the restive region.

Sudan’s Ambassador Abdel-Mahmood Abdel-Haleem, who has vehemently defended the president, Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, promised the elections would serve as a real turning point in his nation, after 50 years of civil war between north and south that killed 2 million people.

He predicted that the elections will be “fair, transparent and successful” despite repeated military coups and years of violence in Darfur that have claimed an estimated 300,000 lives and brought international war crimes charges against al-Bashir.

“We have no electoral crisis at all,” he said. “We may have some crisis within some political parties.”

The Sudanese official also rejected talk of delaying the election.

“The government itself cannot do that and elections are not going to be delayed at all,” he told reporters.

“After all, these types of functions is the responsibility of the national electoral commission and not the government,” he said.

“I think we advise our brothers, the EU observers, we advise them not to send signals that may affect the mood of the election here and there” Abdel-Haleem said.

Japan’s Yukio Takasu, the current president of the Security Council, told reporters several delegations had expressed concerns about the upcoming elections, but made clear there is no official council position on the matter.

Sudan’s presidential, legislative and gubernatorial elections, due to start on Sunday, are the first free elections since 1986.

(ST)