NEC’s neutral delegation to verify results of electoral process in Unity state
April 20, 2010 (BENTIU, Unity State) – A neutral intervening team from the headquarters of the National Elections Commission (NEC) in Khartoum is soon expected to travel to Unity state’s capital, Bentiu, to verify the raw figures of the gubernatorial elections results in the state.
Candidates of other political parties contesting for the position of governor in the oil-rich state have accused the State High Elections Committee of being partial and under the influence of the incumbent governor, Taban Deng Gai.
In a statement read to Sudan Tribune on Tuesday after their joint briefing with the leading independent candidate, Angelina Teny, the parties explained that the state electoral committee had resorted to rigging of the raw data in order to fix it in favor of the incumbent governor.
Preliminary results from all the other major eight counties, with the exception of the least populated Parieng County, which process was suspended because of rampant irregularities, have shown that the independent candidate, Angelina Teny, was ahead of the incumbent governor by more than 24,000 extra votes.
All parties and independent head agents were supposed to be present on Tuesday in the office of the State High Elections Committee to verify figures of raw records of the results according to the figures kept by each of the parties’ agents from different counties or centers.
However, the electoral committee reportedly refused to carry out such verifications in the presence of agents and went ahead unilaterally by inflating and entering such raw figures into the computer system after which they would announce the winner.
The parties accused the state electoral body of manipulating the results by rigging them to meet the demand of votes needed by the incumbent governor in order for him to be declared the winner.
“Wide spread rigging is taking place in the office of the State High Elections Committee in Bentiu because they have been intimidated into accepting to rig the results in favor of the incumbent governor,” said an official close to the office of the electoral body.
“Raw figures are being inflated from tens to hundreds or even thousands in favor of Taban Deng. For example, the first raw figure to be detected from a certain station, among possibly hundreds of such cases, indicated that Taban Deng got only 21 votes according to the figure recorded by all parties’ agents present in that station, but the Committee inflated it and instead entered a figure of 121 votes into the so-called officially verified computer records,” he further explained.
“They were trying to top up figures for the incumbent governor until his votes could surpass those of Angelina Teny and then they would rush to announce him the winner,” he lamented.
He said the parties requested NEC’s headquarters to intervene by sending a neutral committee to Bentiu to witness the verification exercise in the presence of all parties’ agents using their records from all the centers.
Parieng County which is one of the nine counties in the state has reportedly been suspended and excluded from the electoral process because of extensive irregularities in the area.
The High Elections Committee in Unity State however denied receiving a directive from NEC ordering the suspension of vote counting in Parieng County, even though candidates have reported extensive irregularities.
The State’s Senior Elections Officer, Thomas Jenena, confirmed to Radio Miraya that voting counting was complete, adding that the results would be announced on Wednesday.
However, the main challenger, Angelina Teny, disclosed that NEC had suspended vote counting in Parieng County because of rampant rigging in the area.
Speaking to Radio Miraya, Teny said a letter was sent to NEC detailing all violations and irregularities at Parieng County. The NEC, she added, after studying the complaint responded by suspending results in Parieng.
Four contestants for the position of governor, including Teny, expressed concern that without a transparent process in verifications of figures entered into the official electronic data, the figures would be inflated by adding tens of thousands to increase the number of votes for the incumbent.
“That would make it very difficult for any body to convince or explain to the voters and parties’ agents, who still keep their respective matching original records from all centers, how the results got reversed,” he cautioned.
He however expressed optimism that the NEC’s head office would intervene and set things right to achieve the purpose for which the elections were being conducted in the first place.
(ST)