African and Arabs organisations praise the conduct of Sudanese elections

April 18, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The African Union and Arab League Observation missions praised on Sunday the Sudanese elections rejecting reports by Carter Center and EU observer teams who said it did not meet the international standards.

“We cannot say that the Sudanese elections have met international standards, but that does not reduce what has happened, which is an important transition,” said Salah Halima the head of AL mission in Khartoum today.

“What happened in Sudan was a historical event and a great achievement for Sudanese people,” said Kunle Adeyemi, who is spokesperson of the AU observer mission in Sudan chaired by John Kufuor the former President of Ghana. “Looking into the fact this is a country that had not had a multi-party election for almost a generation… to say they are free and fair, to the best of our knowledge we have no reason to think the contrary,” he added.

“We have not found evidence of fraud… we saw a vote that was very transparent,” Adeyemi affirmed.

Speaking about Darfur, the Arab League official, Halima, said the turnout of the populations was at 60% in the cities and 50% in the camps of the internally displaced persons.

As for the western restive region of Darfur, Halima said the turnout in cities was estimated at 60 percent and around 50 percent in IDPs (internally displaced people) camps.

The Carter Center and EU observers agreed yesterday that April elections failed to meet all international standards.

“It is apparent that the elections will fall short of meeting international standards and Sudan’s obligations for genuine elections in many respects,” said the preliminary report of Carter Center released on Saturday. “These elections have struggled to reach international standards. They have not reached them all,” said Veronique de Keyser the head of the E.U. observer mission in Sudan.

The IGAD observers team echoed the African and Arab missions lauding the effectiveness of the Sudanese electoral board. The head of the East African team, Yousif Nezibu, said the members of the NEC reflected a high sense of professionalism and cooperation with the observers during the voting process.

He pointed out that the most important challenges facing the election commissions in the world and especially in Africa is to make the largest number of people exercising their democratic right, adding that the biggest obstacle in this matter is how to identify individuals using identity cards or passports

The chief of the African Commission, Jean Ping, on Saturday commended the peacefully conduct of the Sudanese elections.

African Union chief Jean Ping hailed Sudan on Saturday for “peacefully conducted” elections as Khartoum kicked off vote-counting after five days of balloting. He also hailed the electoral board for its efforts to address the shortcomings.

(ST)