Sudan’s NEC instructs poll stations to transmit results manually over time constraints
April 24, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese National Elections Commission (NEC) has ordered its stations across the country to stop entering the results into the designated software built for that purpose and start transmitting it manually in order to save time.
The revelation will likely elevate opposition suspicions that the electoral process has been vulnerable to fraud and vote rigging allowing the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) to gain an overwhelming majority in the presidential, gubernatorial and legislative elections.
The elections, set up under a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war, were designed to help transform the oil-producing nation into a democracy ahead of a key 2011 southern referendum on secession.
The first multiparty elections in 24 years have been marred by opposition boycott and claims by those who took part that widespread fraud took place. An unverified YouTube video has been circulated showing NEC staff at a polling station in East Sudan filling out the ballots and sticking it inside the boxes.
The NEC dismissed the video as fabricated and said it will not investigate it. However, today local newspapers said that the electoral body will review a formal complaint relating to the video.
Meanwhile, the NEC issued conflicting statements on when the election results will be released. It is widely expected that they will be announced tomorrow though some officials said they might be delayed until next week.
The results were originally scheduled to be out last Tuesday but the election officials said logistical issues particularly relating to getting feedback from stations in South Sudan.
Reuters reported today that the NEC told state polling committees to stop collecting data on computers and start sending in voting figures collated on paper according to three sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The concern is that any way of tracking what’s going on and any control mechanisms are out of the window. They could write down anything on a bit of paper,” said one elections observer.
The NEC technical director al-Hadi Mohamed Ahmed denied it would make any difference to the result, “We are working by Internet, fax… anything — this is Sudan after all,” he said. “Some states don’t even have electricity.”
Mohamed Jaweesh, NEC head of IT, said staff shortages were among the problems delaying data input.
“They were supposed to concurrently send the manually tabulated results and input into the system,” he told Reuters. “But now they will not wait for the system.”
One observer said the software had a number of “red flags” built in that would show up obviously wrong or suspicious figures, for example a voter turnout of more than 100 percent.
“My understanding is that in various places, almost every result was going into quarantine because there was a query on it for some reason or another,” the observer said.
A second international source close to the voting system said the computer system had already shown up discrepancies.
“Abandoning the automated system makes the entire results process extremely vulnerable to manipulation,” the source said, adding the NEC had been advised against the move.
One opposition figure reached by Sudan Tribune said the NEC “is trying to clean up the mess they created”.
“Before the elections started they said they are well prepared and refused to reschedule. Now they are working with the National Congress [Party] to play with the votes but even that did not work too well so the process got out of control” the Umma Reform and Renewal Party (URRP) Mubarak Al-Fadil said.
“This explains why they are so late in announcing the results. I am pretty sure what they cooked appeared to be illogical so they are trying to fix it” Al-Fadil added.
But the NEC official Al-Hadi in statements to reporters today denied the claims on intentionally delaying the results saying it Is not in their interest to do so, adding that it is difficult to specify a date when final results will be announced since the South is behind in the process of transmitting the vote count.
(ST)