Confusion, chaos marks first day in Sudan elections, opposition allege fraud

April 11, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The first day of Sudan’s general election was marred by delay, confusion of candidates’ names and symbols as well as withdrawal of some candidates for the national parliament while the opposition parties decry the failure of the process.

Over 16 million of Sudanese began to participate in the first multiparty polling in more than two decades. Carter Center in a report released on March 17 had warned that the poor preparation could impact negatively the process and suggested to delay briefly the electoral process.

The National Elections Commission (NEC) acknowledged “technical errors” in voting slips that angered scores of candidates and led many to accuse the board of failing to fulfill its mandate causing a breakdown in the process.

Among the errors the Sudan state media reported were voters mutilating the ballots by over-marking their choices and delay in receiving voting boxes.

In many parts of the country voting began in the afternoon because the polling stations have not yet received the ballots denying thousands of voters the opportunity to cast their votes.

Eight candidates have announced their withdrawal from the race including prominent pro-Islamists journalists running as independents protesting the omission of their symbols in the ballots at many voting centers. Others said that there was widespread discrepancy in voter records with many names missing or moved to different locations.

Al-Mahboub Abdel-Salam a senior figure with the Popular Congress Party (PCP) accused the authorities of evicting their delegates from the polling stations making them unable to monitor the voting. However, the information minister at the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) Rabie Abdel-Aati denied in an interview with the Dubai based Al-Arabiya TV claims made by Abdel-Salam saying his party has no role in making such decisions and that it is up to the NEC officials who are in control of the stations.

The Juba alliance comprised of the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) and other Northern opposition parties will hold a press conference tomorrow to outline the violations they discovered so far.

The presidential candidates Abdullah Deng Nhial (PCP) and Hatim Al-Sir (Democratic Unionist Party) told Washington based Al-Hurra TV that fraud took place in a “scary” manner.

But the way things proceeded today came to no one’s surprise given the complexity of the elections that is meant to pick two presidents, 24 governors and 26 state and national assemblies, using three different voting systems and up to 12 ballots. Many Sudanese are also voting for the first time.

After voting, Kiir called the vote “a good beginning” for Sudan. “I hope it will be a foundation for future democracy.”

The SPLM pulled out its presidential candidate Yasser Arman, while former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi of the northern opposition Umma party also withdrew further undermining the elections credibility.

The opposition parties accused the NCP of veteran President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, who seized power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, of plotting to fake an election victory, particularly after the contract for ballot papers went to a state-owned print house.

Observers say Bashir, who is expected to easily win the elections, is desperately seeking election legitimacy in face of the arrest warrant issued for him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges related to crimes committed in Darfur.

The former US president Jimmy Carter who is in Khartoum monitoring the elections warned today that a collapse of Sudan’s elections could spark a national and regional religious war.

“I think if some violence or disruption occurs here in Sudan it might very well spill over into a large part of Africa,” he said in an interview with Reuters.

Asked what specifically could trigger such a conflict, Carter answered: “I think a breakdown in the entire electoral process that results in violence on both sides … I would say that that could happen only if the process envisioned in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was disrupted completely which I certainly do not anticipate.”

In an interview with the Saudi owned Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper the independent presidential candidate Kamil Idris and the former director of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said that “elections have failed in its first day”.

“Closing a polling station, even for several hours means a failure. There is even confusion in the identification code, corresponding to each candidate. They are putting the candidate with the wrong symbol” he said.

Idris said he didn’t cast his vote yet and may even withdraw after deliberating with others. He noted that voter turnout was low and that the average voting time per person was twenty minutes.

“If things continue as they are now [we have] no choice but to withdraw…we want them to correct the errors, because we took part in the elections for the national principle of compromise, to run the state in the coming period and to resolve the Darfur [crisis] and to keep the hope of unity in the south. If the election fail, however, we have no call for a transitional government to arrange for free and fair elections…..there is no doubt that the [elections] commission failed. The National Congress Party must accept a national government” he added.

The SPLM today called for extending the polling period from three to seven days citing many irregularities in the process and long delays. Kiir was forced to wait 20 minutes under a tree for his polling station to open in the southern capital Juba and then spoiled his first ballot by putting it in the wrong box.

(ST)