Pro-government body files lawsuit against Sudan’s SSRC & SPLM
December 10, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The Supreme Council for Peace and Unity filed a lawsuit with the constitutional court against the South Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) and the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM), a pro-government website reported today.
Three weeks of voter registration for the referendum ended on Wednesday, with almost three million people signing up to vote in the south, electoral officials said.
The Sudanese Media Center (SMC) website believed to be run by intelligence services quoted the head of the Supreme Council for Peace and Unity Paul Layli as saying that the SPLM controls the performance and the work of the SSRC in the legal and procedural issues related voter registration.
He accused the SPLM of inciting Southerners not to register for voting describing it as a violation of the law and clear transgression of the SSRC regulations.
Furthermore, Layli labeled the registration process as unfair, claiming that the SPLM to mobilized the SPLA to change the figures and referendum outcome. He called on the SSRC to quickly adjudicate the complaints and challenges presented before it.
SMC quoted the director of the Department of Survey and Information at the council Gareeb-Allah Abdullah as accusing the SPLM and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) of blocking the registration of southern citizens and repatriating them at the same time to disrupt the registration process.
Sources told Sudan Tribune this week that a number of Southern figures backed by the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) will seek to file a lawsuit against SSRC to obtain a ruling that the commission’s has violated the interim constitution and the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in conducting the voter registration.
Among the arguments put forward by the group that the referendum law stipulates that registering the voters and finalizing the lists should have been completed three months prior to the vote. Because the Sudanese national assembly has not passed any amendments to the current law and thus the voter registration process should be deemed unconstitutional paving the way for its annulment.
But the head of the SSRC Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil brushed the arguments aside saying that they will continue their work despite the time constraints and limited time before the polls open and final voter list published.
According to local media Khalil said that constitutional court has no jurisdiction to look into challenges and complaints against the SSRC because it will conflict with the referendum law which states that signatories to the CPA should allow for a conducive environment to conduct the plebiscite.
“Those people are either ignorant of the law or went to [get advice] from people who have no knowledge of the law,” Khalil said.
The NCP alleged that the ex-Southern rebel group is intimidating potential voters so that they don’t register in order to make it likely that the referendum will result in a vote for secession. Last month, the NCP stressed that they will not recognize the outcome of the referendum if the registration process continues in this non-transparent manner.
While a simple majority of 50 percent plus one vote is needed to decide either for unity or independence, the vote will only be valid if 60 percent of registered voters turn out.
(ST)